Original subtitles

[James Cameron] The Ocean...

the last frontier on earth.

So much is unexplored and unexplained.

To change that...

a kickass team of insanely talented specialists is

setting out to push the frontiers of what we know

about our oceans.

[Zoleka Filander] Oh my gosh.

[James Cameron] Zoleka Filander, deep sea scientist.

[Zoleka Filander] Being a deep-sea researcher means

having front row tickets to the best movie that everybody

wants to watch.

[James Cameron] Melissa Márquez...

[Melissa Márquez] Straight ahead, 12:00.

[James Cameron] Shark biologist.

[Melissa Márquez] We just saw what no one has seen before.

[James Cameron] Eric Stackpole...

[Eric Stackpole] Scan now!

[James Cameron] Ocean tech innovator.

[Eric Stackpole] I love building tools that allow us

to see things in ways we've never seen before.

[gasps]

[James Cameron] And Aldo Kane...

[Aldo Kane] This is insane.

[James Cameron] Former Royal Marine; special ops.

[Aldo Kane] It doesn't get any more cutting-edge

exploration than this.

[James Cameron] Their secret weapon...

...the OceanXplorer.

The most technologically advanced research vessel

ever built.

There's never been a more urgent need to understand

our ocean and the animals that call it home...

Because their lives and ours depend on it.

This time the team ventures into the realm of ancient ice giants.

[Melissa Márquez] Oh shark, shark.

[theme music plays]

[James Cameron] The OceanXplorer is headed

where most ships fear to go.

The ice, of the Arctic Ocean.

[Melissa Márquez] A bit in disbelief that

we're actually here.

[Eric Stackpole] Yeah I'm just trying to take it all in.

[James Cameron] A treacherous journey, to a hostile world.

[Zoleka Filander] Being one of the few people that are here,

that comes with great responsibility.

[Aldo Kane] Yeah.

[Eric Stackpole] This is definitely an area that has

never been covered that well before, the instruments that

we have on board are perhaps

gonna be the first to see this stuff.

[Melissa Márquez] Such an amazing opportunity to leave

such a lasting impact, in ways that hasn't been done before.

[James Cameron] Just 500 miles from the north pole.

They've reached the ship's limit.

All that lies ahead of them is an ocean covered in ice.

This frozen world may seem barren.

But beneath the ice, lies a thriving underwater world.

Where long-lived giants roam.

Living up to 200 years, the bowhead whale has the

longest lifespan of any mammal.

And even more extraordinary, the Greenland shark,

the longest living vertebrate,

can survive for an astounding 500 years.

Extreme creatures, dominating an extreme world.

The foundation of the whole ecosystem...

ice.

The team's first mission, is to get beneath the ice and

find evidence of the life that

allows these Arctic giants to thrive.

Former Commando Aldo Kane starts the search.

[Aldo Kane] The plan is, is that I want to dive under the ice.

This is the furthest north I've ever been, this will be

the coldest water dive I've done, the highest north dive

I've ever done.

[Dive Crew] Our visibility is dropping down to under a mile.

[James Cameron] Aldo will be joined by underwater

cinematographer David Reichart.

[Aldo Kane] The plan will be that you and I go in,

underneath, into the ice.

[James Cameron] On the underside of the ice,

Aldo and David hope to find algae, a critical first step

in the Arctic food web.

[Aldo Kane] The ice is closing in quite a bit round about us.

[Dive Crew] 3, 2, 1.

[splashing]

[Aldo Kane] That's uh, me in the water now so we should

push in under the ice and see what we can see.

Over.

[David Reichart] Look at all the tiny little creatures in here.

[Aldo Kane] The water temperature's around

minus 1.5 at the minute.

[David Reichart] If you look into the light, you see this

halo of these tiny little threads everywhere,

which is the ice as it starts to form.

[Aldo Kane] This is so cool.

[David Reichart] Aldo lets go take a look at this uh,

under this zone over here it's a little bit darker...

definitely indicates some kind of a algae or something.

[Aldo Kane] Yeah David that looks like some algae

there doesn't it?

[James Cameron] But before Aldo can take a sample,

the freezing water creates a big problem.

[David Reichart] I'm having a freeze-up I'm coming up.

[James Cameron] David's regulator has frozen.

[Aldo Kane] David's having a free flow we're coming up!

We're coming up.

We're coming up!

[James Cameron] Now both their regulators have frozen open,

the air is rushing from their tanks.

It's an emergency situation, they have to abort the dive.

[Dive Crew] 3, 2, 1, up.

[Aldo Kane] Both David and I jumped in...

we thought we could see the algae but...

um, David had a free-flow, frozen regulator

and I had a free-flow, frozen regulator,

we were about here on the ice actually,

so 5 or 6 meters in, and that's it,

that's the end of the dive.

[James Cameron] Aldo's found algae under the ice...

now deep-sea researcher Zoleka takes the search for life

to the next level.

[Zoleka Filander] It's too dangerous to take the

piloted sub under the ice,

so we are gonna deploy the ROV to see what's down there.

[James Cameron] The ROV is the ship's

remotely operated vehicle,

capable of diving to almost 20,000 feet.

[Zoleka Filander] Copepod!

Here!

Look at them go.

So tiny.

It's great that we got this on camera guys, super great.

[James Cameron] Zoleka and the ROV team have been able to

find copepods.

Tiny shrimp-like creatures that punch well above their

weight in the Arctic food chain.

[Zoleka Filander] They are the grazer of the algae

under the ice.

[James Cameron] Each spring, as algae starts to grow on the

underside of the ice, billions of these quarter-inch long

copepods rise from the depths to graze upon it.

They in turn become food for many other ocean creatures.

[Zoleka Filander] It's really hard to conceptualize or

imagine that the bowhead whales, one of the largest

ever to roam the oceans, is feeding on this crustacean.

[James Cameron] The team has found signs of life in these

waters, and it all hangs on the ice...

No ice... no algae.

No algae... no copepods.

No copepods... no bowhead whales.

These Bowhead whales can weigh up to 100 tons.

Of all the animals on the planet

only the blue whale is heavier.

Their massive head is up to 20 feet long,

and can create a breathing hole,

by smashing through solid ice, up to two feet thick.

Bowhead whales have a mouth so big you could drive

a school bus into it.

But they feast on the tiniest of creatures, scooping up

almost two million copepods in every mouthful.

Bowhead whales live across the Arctic with numbers

in the tens of thousands.

But here, the Spitsbergen population was hunted

to near extinction.

Their numbers were thought to be reduced to a few handfuls.

[James Cameron] In the 100 years since commercial whaling ended

in the Arctic, the Spitsbergen bowheads

have barely been seen or studied.

The team's next mission is to find out how this population

is doing now?

Joining our team are Arctic marine mammal scientists

Kit Kovacs and Christian Lydersen

who've been studying the polar region for over 40 years.

[Kit Kovacs] Bowheads in the Spitsbergen population are

modestly famous in conservation terms,

because they were the first whale population in the world

to be decimated.

Everything about bowhead biology is pretty slow and conservative.

At more southerly latitudes, animals tend to live faster,

they eat more quickly, they have babies more often,

they have more babies in each pregnancy.

Our Arctic animals slow and steady is the rule.

[James Cameron] These gentle giants like to take their time.

They move slow...

they breed late, at 25...

and have young just twice a decade.

[Eric Stackpole] Kit and Christian have this really

cool piece of equipment that uses compressed air to fire a

satellite tag into the skin of a whale, while taking a biopsy

sample at the same time.

This thing's pretty cool, but we're going to have to fire it

from a moving helicopter.

Finding these bowhead whales in the ice is not easy,

Kit and Christian tell me it can take them 50 hours before they

even find their first bowhead,

so this is going to take a long time I think.

[helicopter whirring]

[Christian Lydersen] We want to go at 300 feet around 60 knots.

[Eric Stackpole] What should I be looking for?

I mean are they usually in, kind of amidst these chunks of

ice or are they usually in larger open spots?

[Christian Lydersen] It depends on what they are doing.

[Kit Kovacs] Everybody's looking for anything black

and anything moving.

[Christian Lydersen] Anything you see actually that

looks suspicious.

[Eric Stackpole] Makes this extra challenging.

[Kit Kovacs] Always think positive.

[Eric Stackpole] Good advice Kit thank you.

So do they only survive, do they only live where there's

the presence of ice on the surface, or do they venture

further away where you can't find any ice?

[Kit Kovacs] They'll tip-toe out from the ice up to

200 kilometers for short periods in our area, but for the vast

majority of their time they are well into ice,

sometimes in what would be considered 100% ice cover.

[Eric Stackpole] Wow.

[Kit Kovacs] There's an animal at the surface here,

right under us now.

[Eric Stackpole] Oh yeah I see it.

[Kit Kovacs] He's subsurface right now but I can still see

where he is. 11:00.

[Eric Stackpole] This is happening!

- Two of them. - Two of them?

[Eric Stackpole] 9:00. Yeah.

[Pilot] Quick turnaround.

[Christian Lydersen] There's, there's three.

[James Cameron] Positive thinking has paid off.

Three Bowheads in one location!

[Kit Kovacs] Ok, let's get one of them.

[Pilot] You want me to come in a little faster? We ok?

[Christian Lydersen] Much, much lower.

[Kit Kovacs] 70.

[Christian Lydersen] Much, much lower!

[Kit Kovacs] 60.

50.

[Christian Lydersen] It's coming, it's coming, come on,

go down, go down, go down!

[dart firing]

[Kit Kovacs] Great hit Christian.

[James Cameron] The locator tag is successfully attached,

but the biopsy sample needs to be scooped out of the water.

[Eric Stackpole] Alright we got it!

[Kit Kovacs] Christian are you ready for

liquid Nitrogen please?

- So you take off this. - Ok.

[James Cameron] This tissue sample is precious,

they quickly store it in liquid nitrogen.

[Eric Stackpole] Ok.

[James Cameron] It's a huge win...

And with another bowhead still at the surface they have a

chance to double down on the success.

[Pilot] I'm gonna come at it from behind here.

[Christian Lydersen] It's coming up again?

Yes, he is.

Let's go down, go down, go down.

[dart firing]

[Eric Stackpole] Yes number two.

- [Pilot] There's another one right there. - [Christian Lydersen] There's another one?

[Pilot] Yeah, right in front of us, right in front of us.

[Kit Kovacs] 40, 30...

[Christian Lydersen] He will come up again,

let's go closer, closer.

[dart firing]

Both tags on!

[Eric Stackpole] OK, three deployed.

[James Cameron] Tagging three bowheads in one helo mission

is an extraordinary success.

[Christian Lydersen] We've been extremely lucky.

[Kit Kovacs] This is an amazing, amazing day.

[Christian Lydersen] We're out here in the middle of nowhere

and uh, and we just hit the, the pot of gold.

[Eric Stackpole] Of course I know this is the beginning of,

of where the science really happens because now we have

these biopsy samples.

[helicopter whirring]

[James Cameron] In the ship's lab, Kit prepares the tissue

sample from the Bowhead whale for genetic analysis.

[Kit Kovacs] Here's our, our bowhead sample, this is

our black treasure.

The DNA, these days, is one of the most exciting analysis

that you can perform.

[Eric Stackpole] Is this kind of similar to like, if I do

one of these where I spit into a tube and send it into

a genetic analysis place they can tell me where my

ancestors came from?

[Kit Kovacs] Exactly.

[James Cameron] Just like a do-it-yourself ancestry kit,

DNA samples will show how related these whales are.

A small group that was taken to the brink of extinction,

you'd expect a low genetic diversity.

[Eric Stackpole] Is it true, they thought that this

group of bowheads there was fewer than 10?

[Kit Kovacs] I think between 1940 and 1980 there had been

three sightings, so they suggested that there was

a very tiny population.

We thought they were all completely gone, but clearly

there were some individuals that had a strong preference

and a very strong affiliation with sea ice and they survived

that really heavy period of exploitation.

[Eric Stackpole] That disposition probably was the

thing that allowed them to survive through

all this whaling?

[Kit Kovacs] No question about it, it was their saving grace.

[James Cameron] Christian and Kit's research is showing a

far larger and more genetically diverse group

than we expected.

They now estimate it could be as many as 350 bowheads.

That's a lot more than a few handfuls.

The Spitsbergen population must have survived out of the

hunters reach, protected by the ice.

But the very thing that saved them, the ice,

is now their new problem.

It's disappearing...

and fast!

In the past 40 years the amount of summer ice cover

in the Arctic has shrunken by almost half.

In just a fraction of the bowheads long lives,

their ice world has transformed around them,

and it continues to shrink at an increasing rate.

[Aldo Kane] It's changing quickly, its changing so

quickly it's quite saddening, you know by the time my son is

my age this environment won't be here this,

it won't look like this.

[James Cameron] The team now wants to meet another giant,

which also depends on the Arctic ocean freezing every year,

and incredibly this one lives almost twice as long

as a bowhead whale.

So they travel to the islands of Svalbard, which is a known

hotspot for the mysterious Greenland shark.

These cold-loving giants are the only sharks to be found

year-round in Arctic waters,

feeding and scavenging on the fish and mammals,

that depend on the ice.

Like the bowhead whale, the Greenland shark thrives

in the icy water.

And is the longest living of all vertebrates.

Which means there could be Greenland sharks swimming

in the Arctic today,

that were alive when the Mayflower sailed.

But very little else is known about them.

[Aldo Kane] These sharks are not very well studied

there's a number of reasons why not...

one, they're deep sea sharks, technology hasn't really been

there before to, to understand them,

and two we are in the high Arctic,

just operating here is difficult.

[birds cawing]

[James Cameron] The team's shark biologist Melissa Márquez,

is going to lead the mission to gather crucial data.

[Melissa Márquez] It's really hard to get access to

Greenland sharks just because of how remote they are.

Every single interaction that we have with these animals is

extremely valuable,

it's once in a lifetime data that either is gonna help

validate the very little we know about these sharks,

or it's going to cause a lot more questions with

no answers because this is a first.

[Eric Stackpole] We've teamed up with these scientists

Nigel and Eric, who are experts in this field.

Maybe we can work together to unlock a mystery.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Hey, how's it going?

[Eric Stackpole] Hey! Welcome to the OceanXplorer.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Great meeting you.

[Eric Stackpole] Yeah welcome, welcome aboard.

[Nigel Hussey] Pleased to meet you Eric.

[Eric Stackpole] Welcome aboard.

[Nigel Hussey] We've come here to try and demystify or

try and understand the Greenland shark.

[James Cameron] The team gathers in the mixed reality lab

to share what little is known about these

hard to study creatures.

[Melissa Márquez] So one of the coolest things I think

that I find about these sharks is their age.

[Nigel Hussey] So, they do hold the record as the

longest-lived vertebrate on the planet.

The estimated age at the moment is 392 years,

plus or minus 120 years.

[Eric Stackpole] So wait, that would be over 500 years old!

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah.

The largest size is confirmed for them is about 6.4 meters.

[Eric Stackpole] Wow, that's nearly 20 feet long.

[Nigel Hussey] Exactly.

[Melissa Márquez] They've got these kind of infamous

eye parasites, that make it a little bit hard to see,

if not makes them blind.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Almost all Greenland sharks actually will

have these eye parasites attached to their cornea.

These sharks live often in deep waters where light is

not very strong and so they might not need to rely on vision

as much as some other species.

And so we think that they rely quite heavily on smell

in order to find food and and possibly to navigate as well.

[Nigel Hussey] It probably remains one of the least known

of all species on the planet

and what we really want to try and understand

is what is the feeding behavior of Greenland sharks?

[James Cameron] Working with Nigel and Eric, the team wants

to attach motion sensors to the sharks, to gather data on

how they move underwater.

This could offer valuable insight on how the sharks feed.

[Eric Ste-Marie] In this study, we're planning on

putting some accelerometer tags on Greenland sharks.

We'll be able to detect the number of tail movements,

whether the shark is swimming up or down.

Detecting those fine scale behaviors we're hoping that

we can give us a bit more insight into the lives

of these really mysterious animals.

[James Cameron] The team hopes to attract the sharks from the

icy depths by putting out baited lines.

[Nigel Hussey] What we'll do is we'll drop off an anchor first.

Bait.

[Aldo Kane] Right, first knot coming round.

Clear!

Mark position.

[Melissa Márquez] Marking that.

[Eric Ste-Marie] These conditions are perfect for

tagging so I actually hope we get a few sharks.

[Melissa Márquez] When we're tagging animals,

we're thinking about doing the most humane way possible.

We're thinking about the wellbeing of the animal,

so with Greenland sharks what we've actually got is

a specialized hook that reduced injury.

[birds cawing]

[♪ anticipatory music]

[Eric Ste-Marie] Feeling good about it.

Every so often there's a good tug.

[Nigel Hussey] It feels like we've got something on the line.

[Eric Ste-Marie] I'm definitely feeling a tug.

[Melissa Márquez] So an actual like shark tug?

[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah. Yeah.

[Nigel Hussey] We might be lucky we might be lucky!

[Aldo Kane] Yeah I can see it, shark.

Shark coming up... looks big!

There's a lot of weight on that.

[Nigel Hussey] This is a big animal.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Look at that tail.

It's a massive, massive shark.

[Nigel Hussey] Ready with that body strap.

You ready Aldo?

[Aldo Kane] Yeah coming in.

[Nigel Hussey] Ok.

Alright. Yep.

Woah.

Ok.

[grunting]

[Aldo Kane] It is strong when it, when it moves.

[grunting]

[Nigel Hussey] Ok it's a female yeah?

[Melissa Márquez] Yep!

So this is water activated?

So as soon as it goes into the water?

[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah exactly, so I'll submerge it and

ten seconds later it'll start logging acceleration,

also depth and temperature.

Yep.

[James Cameron] The motion tag will stay attached to the

shark for three days, recording every detail of its movement,

hundreds of times per second.

[Melissa Márquez] We ready for a measurement?

[Nigel Hussey] Yep.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Ok is she straight?

Straighten her out.

- Yeah. - Yeah perfect.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Perfect. Ok 370.

[Melissa Márquez] 370!

[Eric Ste-Marie] 370. Yeah.

[Melissa Márquez] Dude almost 4 meters.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Almost.

[Aldo Kane] Ok releasing from the middle?

Body straps off.

Ok all clear of the red rope?

[Nigel Hussey] Ok so we're just gonna let it go yeah.

[Aldo Kane] Swimming away.

[♪ dreamy dramatic music]

[engine rumbling]

[James Cameron] In the ship's lab, analysis of the

Greenland shark tag data reveals intriguing results.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Each one of these peaks represents a

full back and forth movement of the shark's tail.

It took about 6 seconds for the shark to do one full

back and forth motion.

So quite slow.

At certain points the shark does increase its tail beat

frequency, meaning it starts swimming faster.

So, what we're interested in is trying to figure out what

it's doing during those times, when it is exhibiting burst

swimming or more rapid tail beats.

[Nigel Hussey] We can only predict that that maybe is

some response to stimuli.

We need factual observations of what the animal is doing.

[James Cameron] To find out what's causing this change in

speed, Melissa sets up an experiment that could

prove irresistible to Greenland sharks.

[Melissa Márquez] Oh nooo!

[Eric Ste-Marie] Mm, they look fresh.

[Melissa Márquez] Don't even!

We're gonna be doing a food fall experiment.

Essentially, we're gonna put a bunch of bait down on the

bottom of the ocean and see what shows up.

Hopefully it's Greenland Sharks.

If Greenland sharks aren't attracted to this,

I don't know what will.

[Nigel Hussey] To my knowledge this is the first time that

this type of experiment has been conducted.

Cage is going down.

The food fall experiment with these different sizes of prey

basically allows us to see ok, how firstly,

does the shark approach the prey?

Secondly, when the animal actually takes the prey,

does it consume it whole?

Does it suck up the prey item?

These are key questions we'd like to answer.

The dinner bell's ringing.

[Melissa Márquez] Well hopefully the sharks like this.

[James Cameron] For their final mission, can the team be

the first people to ever witness Greenland sharks feeding?

24 hours after sending the bait cage to the sea floor,

Melissa and Nigel prepare to make the same journey in

one of the ship's subs.

[Nigel Hussey] First time uh to get into a sub.

[Melissa Márquez] We just need to get down there,

observe their behavior, and see them in-situ and

maybe see a little bit of feeding.

[Nigel Hussey] Ready to go.

[Pilot] Come on down man.

[Nigel Hussey] Very exciting to get down underwater and

go into the natural world of the Greenland sharks and see these

animals behaving on this bait-fall experiment so,

we'll see what we see.

[radio chatter].

[Pilot] S O S O, Neptune venting now.

[James Cameron] From mission control, Zoleka and Eric watch

a live feed of the dive.

[Nigel Hussey] It's like a scuba dive but without the

contact from water.

Ah it's just surreal.

[♪ dramatic music]

What depth are we at now?

[Melissa Márquez] 180.

[Pilot] Uh 180 meters.

[Nigel Hussey] Oh come on sharks, we've got to see

sharks, we have to see sharks.

[James Cameron] The mission control the team is

also on watch.

[Zoleka Filander] My duty is to log any observations that

we might see.

For us to collect this data, this is really gonna like take

the whole understanding of the species to a whole new level.

So it is, it is quite something.

[James Cameron] As they descend into the darkness,

the sub team has no idea if they will encounter Greenland sharks,

or what their reaction to the feast might be.

[Pilot] I've got about 50 meters to the cage.

[radio chatter].

[Pilot] There it is...

[Melissa Márquez] Oh yeah.

[Pilot] I have cage in sight, dead ahead.

[Melissa Márquez] There.

Mm.

[Nigel Hussey] No sharks.

[Pilot] I thought there would be something here, you know?

[Melissa Márquez] Mmn.

[Nigel Hussey] It just seems odd.

[James Cameron] It's an unexpected start...

the bait is untouched.

[Melissa Márquez] Oh, oh! Shark, shark!

[Nigel Hussey] Oh my word, that's just incredible.

[Pilot] He's going to check out the cage.

[Nigel Hussey] Tail fin is hardly moving.

[Melissa Márquez] Oh come on...

you can smell it, I know you can smell it.

Go for it!

Oh right on the nose.

[James Cameron] This is not just a first for Nigel and

Melissa, this is a first for science.

No one has ever sat and watched a Greenland shark

in its natural environment before.

[Melissa Márquez] Look, it's got the parasite on its eye.

[Nigel Hussey] Yep, parasite's on there.

It navigated quite well

round the front of the sub there though.

[Pilot] I think he's not so blind as he pretends to be!

[James Cameron] The shark's behavior is totally unexpected,

it's not going straight for the bait.

[Melissa Márquez] I've never seen that in another

species of shark.

Is it maybe because it can't see that well, if it bumps

into it and it doesn't feel like what it would normally

eat, it'd be like 'naw this isn't what I want'

and it'll back up?

[Nigel Hussey] You know...

[Melissa Márquez] So even though it smells like it?

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah, but you would still think it would

explore around so I'm a little bit surprised.

[James Cameron] Shark biologist Melissa has a plan

to tempt Greenland sharks to the bait.

[Melissa Márquez] There's no current to kind of really

help it out?

[Nigel Hussey] Hmm. It's a very good point.

[Melissa Márquez] I think we've got to get in there and

take some fish and go kshhh.

[Pilot] I mean I've got a manipulator.

[Melissa Márquez] Stir it up!

[Pilot] Turning on the hydraulics.

[♪ intense music]

[Melissa Márquez] Give it a little shake.

Yes that, do that.

Cause a little bit of a ruckus.

[Pilot] Think that's enough?

[Melissa Márquez] I mean it's got a nice plume.

[Pilot] That looks like it smells!

[Melissa Márquez] Perfect!

Come on sharks.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Nigel Hussey] Oh my word!

[Melissa Márquez] Male! It's just massive.

[Eric Stackpole] Here we go.

[Pilot] Look at his eyes.

[Nigel Hussey] That's like it's actually looking directly at us.

[Pilot] Oh my god!

[Melissa Márquez] Oh my goodness!

[Nigel Hussey] Now can we go on the bait?

[Melissa Márquez] Come on come back around baby...

eat something!

[Nigel Hussey] There, there, there!

[Melissa Márquez] Come on!!

[Pilot] He wants it.

[Nigel Hussey] Yes.

Yes, yes yes yes.

- Oh there we go, there we go. - Oh yes.

- He's got it. - He's got it.

[Pilot] He's pretty quick, I thought you said these guys

were slow.

[Nigel Hussey] Killer instinct finally kicked in!

That is pretty strong movements there.

[Melissa Márquez] Exactly.

It's almost pinning the bait down to open up this carcass.

[Nigel Hussey] That is incredible.

[Melissa Márquez] Oh just look at it go!

[James Cameron] This is brand new behavior.

The team is making observations they could

only have dreamed of.

[Nigel Hussey] To me it's always like this conceptual

idea with time.

- Yeah. - With longevity.

So we're looking at a behavior now in our time,

but relative in their time what does that mean?

[Melissa Márquez] Mmm.

We just saw what no one has ever seen before!

[Nigel Hussey] We have, we have.

[Melissa Márquez] I call this a success!

[Nigel Hussey] I think we done good!

To actually witness and see an animal that you've committed a

huge amount of time, blood, sweat and tears to studying

it, it, yeah it's indescribable how fabulous it is.

[Melissa Márquez] It's incredible!

This is the first time anyone's ever seen a Greenland shark

in situ like this and actually feeding!

[James Cameron] The team meets to figure out the meaning of

what they've just witnessed.

[Melissa Márquez] Is there anything that you guys have

kind of seen with this data, with our observations that you

think might lend to them living so long?

[Nigel Hussey] The key in the data we've got here, uh, is,

you know the fact that these

animals live life in the slow lane.

Maybe naively I'd always thought that if I was a

Greenland shark and somebody put a goldmine of food for me

on the sea bed, I wouldn't mess around.

[Melissa Márquez] Just dive into it.

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah I would, swim in there and consume,

you know as much as possible and it did the opposite.

The Greenland shark came in and it patrolled, you know

around the arena, it sort of...

[Melissa Márquez] Checked us out a little bit.

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah, it, it checked us out...

[Melissa Márquez] Checked out the other sub.

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah it was sort of surveying you know

its environment.

[Eric Stackpole] You kind of wonder about, you know does

that have anything to do with how they manage risk?

You know we're seeing something that lives a very

long time, and I, I can't help but wonder if it's because

they're so cautious that that helps them not get into

situations that, that cause them to die?

[Nigel Hussey] Yeah.

That's a that's a really good point.

[Eric Ste-Marie] Like most things in life, not everything

has one answer or one solution and it's probably a bit of

everything, from the environment to metabolic rate,

to physiology there's a million different factors

that play in, but it's important to then at the end take a step

back and realize that

there's just so many factors going into it.

[Zoleka Filander] Yeah, yeah.

[Aldo Kane] If in doubt, zoom out.

[laughing]

Do you guys think then you've gained quite a lot

of information and data?

[Eric Ste-Marie] Each one of these observations is like a

gift for us to really get the gears turning.

[Zoleka Filander] He's like...

Yeahhhh.

[Aldo Kane] So it's been a success then?

[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah!

[James Cameron] The combination of the teams' efforts and

the ship's incredible tech have allowed them to

explore the high Arctic, where few have gone before.

They've gathered valuable data that's changed our

understanding of a whole population of whales.

And captured unique footage of an elusive shark.

[Aldo Kane] This mission has shown just how much we still

have to learn about these two amazing Arctic species,

their environment is changing so quickly,

we're running out of time.

[Eric Stackpole] It's been great to be on this mission

and being able to see these animals that are so hard to

observe and live so long.

[Melissa Márquez] The Arctic is special and unique.

There's a bit of magic here that you can't really find

anywhere else.

[James Cameron] Preserving the ice is the only way to

keep life in balance here.

We have to turn things around while we still have time.

Not just for the future of these amazing ice giants,

but for our future too.