The Ridiculously Extreme Lives of Deep Sea Whales
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- Sperm Whales Dive 1000s of meters below the surface in search of food, entering into a completely alien enviroment, such a strange place for a mammal of all creatures to be and it isn't just sperm whales. There are at least a dozen species of whales that have adapted to dive into the abyss for their food and these whales aren't closely related and have evolved to be deep sea divers on separate occasions. So why don't these beasts hunt near the surface, what lures these giants into the deep?
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Sources:
www.int-res.com/articles/meps...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16689....
peerj.com/articles/715/
www.researchgate.net/figure/M...
www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/spo/SPO/...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.researchgate.net/figure/P...
Holding your breath for an hour to go down to a realm of darkness to hunt giant squid is metal af
Then they surface, and fly off into space to truly become metal af
(Gojira reference for those who dont know)
Spermaceti sounds like cool band name
They don't hold their breath to avoid crushing their lungs, its says so in this video.
@@JohnyG29 well their lungs do get crushed to almost 1% their surface volume, their ribcage is hinged to accommodate this inevitable crushing pressure.
@@Adam-tu1qxthis comment would have been way funnier for people who know what it means if you didn't explain it
"Using their sonar to interrogate the darkness" is actually such a beautiful line lmao
Isn’t it! 🤌🏽 so poetic. We need more writing like this
"WHO SENT YOU!? WHO'S YOUR CONTACT!?"
thats what i thought immediately as he said it and then i found this comment hahahahaha
Unlike "Laugh My Ass Off"
😩
@@offshoretomorrow3346 Has anyone ever said that *while trying to be poetic?*
I’m just glad that there are still some truly MEGA fauna out there to observe. Whales are just as cool and awe inspiring as any Mosasaur or Spinosaurid of the past.
Edit: fixed the confusion.
Why is "mega" in quotations
Likely to emphasize it.
@@m3rkbullw0rm48 Megafauna is a scientific classification of very large animal, there are very few of them left in the world. OP migh tnot have realized sperm whales are one of the few animals alive classified as megafauna.
@@Mallchad i know this already. I was asking why they put mega in quotations
@@m3rkbullw0rm48I feel like the quotations/ separation of the word megafauna is a humorous play on words to emphasise their appreciation for whales. Mega is used more generally to say something is cool/big in the UK where I’m from, whereas megafauna is just the scientifically accurate way to describe their size.
If you think about it, even more scary than the idea of just diving down into the abyss is actually being one of those abyssal monsters yourself. Think about it, you're lurking down there, doing your thing, being an abyssal monster as one does, and then there starts to be this faint clicking sound, growing louder and louder. As one of these giant beasts from the great "above" plunges down to devour you. You can't get away. It knows exactly where you are. It can see you through sound even in the complete darkness, and the sonic pulse may even be able to stun you in some cases when close enough. Your doom is just homing in on you and you can only wait for it to arrive. Click, click, click...
Damn that scared me LOL.
u should def write a book
Chilling
beautifully written!
Seconded!
My wish that we get camera footage, photos and a documentary over the beaked whales. It’s time to get them out of obscurity.
Screw that, I want the whale POV what they are smelling, seeing, hearing, and touching down in the deep ocean!!!!
@@MaoRattoMay be in your next life you can become a beaked whale.
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a beaked whale. I thought pilot whales were the deepest diving mammal.
@@MaoRattothis!
So true! So many people don’t even know they exist.
Petition to bring back the amphibian splash intro
Count me in
Aye
I miss that intro.
Something so simple, is quite impactful!
I second that emotion
"using their sonar to interrogate the darkness" damn that is a beautiful line.... *chef's kiss*
The Australian ones are called New South Whales.
Exactly, it’s such an iconic part of this channel
@@KoprolitySenior huh?
lol, yes 😂
😂😂😂😂😂
New Holland
Do baby sperm whales follow the mother down? If not are they left alone on the surface? Are there sperm calf nurseries, with babysitters? Do the mothers not dive while the baby is young? What age can they start diving?
Female and juvenile sperm whales live in large groups of up to 20 individuals called pods. They take turns to find foods and protect their youngs. Baby sperm whales can't dive, so other females within the group will guard them on the surface while another will dive into deep water to find foods.
There's a two episode documentary series about sperm whales and in particular follows a male who eventually winds up getting stranded on a New Zealand beach. I know part of the documentary's title involves "Odyssey", but I don't remember the full name.
The youngest calves stay at the surface, mainly in warm water nurseries where killer whales are rare. Older members of the family often babysit with them, not just to defend against predators but also prevent them from getting lost. These babysitters include aunts and grandmothers, but also older subadult siblings. Also, new born sperm whales are still big animals, at 4 meters long few tropical marine predators would threaten it.
The greater problem lies with the beaked whales, which mainly rely on being sneaky as their main defence against killer whales, and many live exclusively in cold waters with high killer whale density.
@@kylecollier7569 I wonder if being followed around by a camera crew contributed to the whale beaching himself.
@@stevenschnepp576 no that wasn't the case. It was actually the sonar emitted by a submarine that caused the whale to eventually get stranded.
While studying for one of my technical diving exams, I learned that the record simulated depth to which a human (commercial diver) has ever descended is 701 meters (the COMEX Hydra X project). That was apparently the point at which high-pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) essentially became unavoidable and debilitating. I think it took the test subject about a month in that barometric chamber while the pressure was slowly decreased and he could safely come out again.
Did some brief reading. You are correct. Théo Mavrostomos. Amazing!
A MONTH in decompression??
How in the world did they cope? Aren’t those chambers tiny?
@@ias2424I was unable to verify the month-long decompression. Saturation divers can require a week of gradual decompression.
@@ias2424 Based on the Wikipedia page for Decompression practice (not a medical source), it looks like the deeper one is, the faster they can ascend at that depth without suffering issues. The rate of ascent decreases as the surface is approached. The page does not specify depths of 700 meters.
@@ias2424 That week (7 days, 15 hours) was for a depth of 180 meters. So it does not seem unreasonable for it to take a month to decompress for a depth of 701 meters.
Fascinating stuff.
If Azhdarchids were living planes, then sperm whales are living submarines
New moth light media video always makes my day :)
The fact that a couple different types of big cetaceans exploit the twilight zone shows that, despite being a cold dark place, there's enough animal life there to feed tons of whales on a regular basis. Makes me wonder what all those fish/animals are doing in the twilight🤔
As you said, there's enough food and light for a lot of animals, so as Nature hates void, animals get there to avoid competition in the waters above ^^
Pretty much every time you wonder why would animals or plants live in hard conditions, it's to avoid the competition in the more gentle conditions XD
One should bear in mind that, while deep diving cetaceans are numerous and diverse, they are not nearly as numerous as the surface feeding baleen whales. Despite extreme overhunting in history, baleen whales still account for about half of the total marine mammal biomass. Their impact on the marine ecosystem is so massive, that their recovery is perhaps one of our greatest allies in fighting climate change.
Animals who lives in twilight zone has constants migration in the night for search of food in shallow water
They are eating each other. And the ones at the bottom of the food chain eat little bits of poop from the ones that live in the upper layers of the ocean. True story. Poop that rains from above is the foundation of the deep sea ecosystem.
After watching cave diving accident videos, I'm incredibly amazed at deep sea mammals' ability to dive down so far and come up so quickly without getting the bends.
Same here.
You can only get the bends id you're breathing whie coming up to the surface too fast. The whales are holding their breath, so they don't have to worry about that.
In addition to the species mentioned in the video, there is another whale that feed on large deep sea squids. Killer whales are now know to be surprisingly competent deep divers, capable of reaching a depth of more than a 1000m. They also prey on squid more often than people realize: the transient killer whales of North Pacific rely heavily on squid to supplement their marine mammal diet, and those in Bremer Bay in southern Australia, famous for preying on blue whales and beaked whales, have also been observed feeding on giant squid.
Interestingly, this means that killer whales are not only a potential predator of pilot whales, but also an important competitor. This might explain the antagonistic behaviour between the species, where pilot whales are often the aggressor. There is even one observation where a large group of long-fin pilot whales tried to rescue a strapped tooth beaked whale from killer whale attacks. Many beaked whales feed mainly on small fish and squid, and hence do not compete that much with pilot whales, who focus on larger prey.
Thank you for the information!
A part of me wonders if maybe they just really like squid, as a preference or if they're so plentiful compared to other sea creatures so easier to take.
@@diktatoralexander88 Squid is probably not as nutritionally dense as many of their other prey, and though killer whales can make deep dives they are obviously not as good, so I would say squid is a prey item they exploit during lean times when other targets (migratory whales in particular) are out of reach. Its like the situation in East Africa. Lions prefer wildebeests and zebras, but when those migrate, they have to be creative and get by with more tricky, more dangerous or just less profitable prey, things like warthogs, impalas, baboons and even elephants for instance.
Orcas ain’t Whales..
@@nathana.m.1622 Whale is a term used to refer to all marine mammals of this type; all dolphins are technically whales.
great video! your talk about the large squids reminded me of the fact that some of the largest squids in existance, the robust clubhook squid, the giant squid, and the colossal squid, are all huge and deep sea squids, yet are distantly related and evolved their size and range completly independently. I think it would be cool if you did a vid on the evolution of these squids, although since there probably isn't very much information on these rarely seen creatures, a video on abyssal gigantism, or the tendecy for deep sea creatures to evolve to huge sizes, would be cool too :) keep up the great work !
@mothlightmedia !!!
Video about deep-sea squid would certainly be fabulous!
The “blue planet“ DVD series has an episode on “the deep.“ That has the most alien-looking creatures I have ever seen. And the word “bioluminescence“ is used approximately 1000 times. And it’s cool every single time.
The phrase “evolutionary arms race“ is also used quite a bit.
Highly recommend! 🦑
@@dronesclubhighjinks Deep sea creatures remain intact since the paleozoic, since alot of them still have copper blood.
I have a hypothesis that the other reason they target deep-sea squid is they use the dramatic pressure change on the squid to kill it.
Squid are very hardy and flexible; a predator would have trouble killing one by bite force or even by whole swallowing (and can you imagine a sperm whale forcing a live, fighting squid down its relatively small throat?). But to kill a deep-sea squid, a sperm whale just has to grab one at the bottom and swim to the surface, and let the barotrauma do the work.
are u saying there are exploding squid in our oceans
No they just suck them right in. These hunting trips can last for hours, and most of the targets are small squids. Bringing each and every one of them up to the surface wouldn't make ends meet.
I never looked into this, but a thought occurred to me that squid may have evolved to live in the deep sea to avoid large mammals like whales from hunting them in the first place. Then sperm whales (and others) evolve to exploit that food source later.
Squid has been master of the deep sea long before mammals evolved. Molecular studies suggest that different deep sea lineages diverge from one another 100mya, in the mid Cretaceous. Also, I think the pressure of predators as driver of evolution might be overstated, especially for r-selection species that can easily swat off any predators using overwhelming reproductive output.
@@vincentx2850 - Interesting information and hypothesis (about predation). Thank you
I suppose, when I think about it, I think I meant "animals" rather than specifically "mammals" but I guess it doesn't matter.
That diving sperm whale footage is for some reason creeping me out - they seem like such benign creatures on the surface, but they are the kings of the deep dark.
i miss the amphibian splash :(
Me too.
knew smth was missing
and the ambient background song
It must be a trip to "spot" your prey from such distance, then have to race down to get it, only to go back up again. I think it's so neat how our human perceptions of fear, and our capacity of immense imagination, creates such a seemingly impossible barrier between surviving and thriving. I recently heard a quote I like, "Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear." Anyway, enough waxing; I love Sperm Whales (see what I did there?).
It makes a lot of sense but it's still wild that they don't actually have any air in their lungs when they dive. Keep up the great work Moth Light!
Apparently, based on the number of giant squid beaks found in the stomach of sperm whales - scientists estimate there could be 100 million or more giant Cephalopods in the ocean.
Seems like that mammals which forage to 1000m depth all have really big size (around a tons at least). Even true about 2 elephant seal species. Elephant seals are the only 2 non-cetacean mammals make it to top 10 deepest mammal divers
Been watching Moth Light Media for a few years and have watched all of the catalogue, never disappoints 👍😊
Amazing. Such densely-packed, relevant and intriguing information, in a relaxing voice.
Another fine video mate. You always seem to remind me that there are things about living organisms I just don't understand. Keep it up.
Strange fact: there was once a very aggressive species of unknown whale, possibly a sperm whale or a very large orca which harassed and sank ships for over 50 years around the waters of the sixth century Byzantine Empire capital, Constantinople. It was so feared that Emperor Justinian I ordered its capture, but was unable to do so. It was given the name Porphyrios.
I heard that it was a sperm whale
@@user-kf1me5zr6f No, it was definitely a killer whale.
@@JohnyG29We don't know. It was 13,7 meters long, that's four meters longer than the biggest orca ever measured. it could also be an exaggeration from our source, Procopius, I'm not sure they were able to measure it well when it stranded, as it was immediatelly attacked and eaten by the local population.
Also, his name Porphyrios, means purple, probably because it was purple, or a dark-wine colour. Not really the black and white of killer whales. So the sperm whale is the most logical explanation, but sperm whales don't normally live in the Mediterranean sea ^^
@@krankarvolund7771and orcas do?
@@JohnyG29most likely no. Just looking at historical evidence, killer whales have rarely sunk or attacked ships. Only a handful of ships have been documented to have been sunk by orcas. Meanwhile, sperm whales have been recorded sinking ships for hundreds of years. One individual Mocha Dick, was famous for attacking ships and was thought to have sunk between 5-22 ships alone. Another incident was the sinking of the Essex where a bull sperm whale intentionally sank the ship. Furthermore, the whale polyphiros estimated size was well above what any orca has been recorded to grow to. It also hunted alone, a behaviour more typical of sperm whales. Polyphiros had extensive descriptions of its skin colour, dark purple. No mention of the tell tale white patches and no mention of the distinctive fin on orcas. Based on all the evidence it seems highly likely that this whale was a sperm whale. It’s also more typical behaviour of sperm whales to sink ships, a weird one at that. Sperm whales barely spend time at the surface and mainly live in the deep ocean. Yet many accounts exist of sperm whales battering and attacking ships intentionally. Weird when you consider that if any sperm whale feels threatened by a ship it can just dive so deep nothing can bother it. Sperm whales are odd in that they seem to hold grudges, waiting for and attacking human ships out of spite.
New background music!
I actually like the older Fauré-like music better.
Great video (as always).
I loved the explanations of the GPS data. First I've heard and a great way to discuss behavioral differences!
I must say that I like the direction you are taking with your content and I wonder how many more in your audience saves your videos for moments when distractions are absent and unlikely to occur.
Another incredible video!
Great video and fantastic footage 🤗
It’s a good day when you upload.
Your channel is just the greatest. Love your content and your voice is so soothing! Thanks for doing what you do.
I love educational videos with soothing voices and nice music. Great job
As always - a wonderful program - thanks.
Very informative, thanks for sharing
Great as always
Beaked whales are probably my favourite cetaceans. They don't get enough attention
Really excellent, interesting and thought provoking!
This was fantatic i love the depth of information you go into especially the whales physiology and structure, i've also never heard of the Cuvier's Beaked Whale so facinating! The pace of the videos is also perfect
Great job, very informative.
My favorite animal!
Mine too.
Yay! A new video!
Awesome video, thanks!
Well put, fascinating.
Cheers.
They are so beautiful. I love to listen to them talk to each other. Beautiful ❤ i love to learn about sharks also
Hey Moth Light, could you please put your videos in one long playlist so the videos can play one after another?
Great content 💕
^^^agreed!
I used to watch these videos years ago but I guess I never subscribed😅 but today I've happily rediscovered you and subscribed!😊
Great Video👍
Subscribed! ❤
You just have the most beautiful voice and diction! Thanks for all of this 🤗
I really liked your video, subscribd
I dream of living to see the day when we can actually discuss it all with them
That would be amazing if it ever happened..
Right On nice video
I really love the description of their hunting grounds as an oasis for them. To a human, that environment sounds terrifying, but with this perspective change we can actually understand that perhaps they are living the good life with easy access to food!
Would it be weird if MLM did an April Fools video? Evolution of Rocks?
If you define Evolution by its second definition as “gradual development”, then yes Rocks will have evolved, and on a much longer timescale than most life forms. Remember the atmospheric conditions, geological activity, temperatures, interactions with other solar system objects and radiation have all changed over time as well. Large scale Iron oxide and rust was not common until oxygen was made more common by life for example. They might not go through the same kind of natural selection as life does but rocks do “evolve” after a fashion.
It is crazy how we can know the composition of planets so far away we could never reach them in our lifetime, but we still don't know so much about some of the largest animals on earth. I am always looking forward to science finding out new things!
Good video liked and subscribed
I don’t do that often
New moth light media video amd its about whales my absolute favourite im eating good today
Incredible, such fascinating creatures!
Amazing video! More whale content, please!
fascinating vid
Great video as always. It’s amazing to think that sperm whales and dwarf sperm whales are the remnants of a much larger family.
Thank you
Very cool video as always. Interesting how these deep diving whales convert their ready access to an oxygen-rich environment into a powerful hunting advantage in the deep sea.
How is your voice so relaxing
I'm so fascinated with how sperm whales are capable of utilizing their insane sonar abilities that has an array of abilities. Even a sort of weapon mode that effects it's prey or as defensive tactics. I'm sure the intense sonar can highly overwhelm them and help them catch them. Even if for a brief second. Also it's crazy how animals can adapt to live in nearly freezing waters and not succumb to hypothermia or other negative effects of some sort? Deep sea corals have also proven to be much more abundant and diverse than was used to be thought. There is this brand new 1 hr long documentary released on CZcams covering the research of the Schmitt research vessel and this guy does an amazing job narrating, editing, and compiling all the brand new deep sea footage alongside top notch quality information around marine biology as a whole
There’s a pub a couple blocks down my place called The Abyss and you could almost always find whales in there.
Pro tip: the whales usually have big cushy beds. 😉
I’m curious whether we’ve found evidence of similar adaptations (such as the hinging ribs) on extinct marine reptiles like icthyosaurs and mosasaurs. Presumably some species lived in a similar way to today’s deep diving cetaceans.
Ichthyosaurus and Mosasaurus weren't mammals, they were reptiles
@@MarcoAntonio-hw7si Edited. Reptile is what I meant.
Also elephant seal capable to hunt in midnight zone deeper than some cetaceans mammals event though elephant seal is semi aquatic animals
Could you do a video on the evolution of vultures both old and new world species please to explain the differences between them.
Wow! I was amazed. The whales exhale before deep diving and just allow their bodies to be compressed.
Fascinating small whales,didn't know others went deeper,amazing ice sea evolution,and relatively recent(5M
Ahh, the tasty horrors of the deep.
EXCELLENT!
Wow, what an amazing whale! John P.
Apparently, the whales rib cage has adapted to basically collapse and hold a limited amount of air to account for the insane amount of pressure when going that deep. Super cool!
This is a nice little surprise after my 10 hour work shift.
Thank you for a great video! So do we know if these whales eat any carnivorous deep sea fish like the angler fish or dragonfish?
I hope people don't get the ability to dive down here regularly anytime soon. It's incredibly neat to me that these whales traverse such a range of conditions. It's also cool they get oxygenated beforehand and have adapted to the intense water pressure
Whales are awesome
Any chance you'll get on Nebula?
You've got a beautiful voice.
And the splash sound😢❤
Pleeeaase do a video on bees/wasps!!!
To me, sperm whales hunting is probably the coolest thing we haven't been able to observe. Even the giant squid is an incredible animal that I must see more footage of
How do they use their sonar at great depths? Isnt it air driven noises?
I need you to start narrating nature docus. Such a soothing voice, my favorite after sir attenborough himself
Fully agree!
scary to think that we at some point had almost extinguished them
such an unique animal
You're thinking of humpbacks. Spermacetes only got down to about 33% of pre-whaling populations before a relatively swift recovery.
Sometimes I ask myself how it would be to life if I were a whale in my next life.
Moth Light Media using present day footage is uncanny
My question of the day: do any whales drown while hunting?!
bro why did you change the ambient background song☹😓
nice
“Using their sonar to interrogate the darkness…” wow
Glub glub I'm a fish
I just notice the change of music in this one