[MUSIC PLAYING]
[PURRING]
[GASPING]
The world we live
in is pretty weird.
It's filled with things
you never see coming.
Make America great again.
But most of the Earth's
surface is ocean.
So what's going on down there?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Museums Victoria has
two collections filled
with creatures from the deep--
ichthyology, or fish,
and marine invertebrates.
These collections are
filled with creatures that
rarely see the light of day.
And for deep sea animals,
we mean that literally.
Mel Mackenzie manages the
marine invertebrates collection.
It's made up of specimens
collected from the shallows
to the deepest oceans.
Animals in marine
environments, just like animals
in terrestrial environments,
are adapted to all sorts
of different habitats.
The difference is,
in the ocean, you've
got to think about
extra things like depth.
You're thinking about darkness.
You're thinking about pressure.
And of course, you've
got to breathe water.
Just because an invertebrate
lacks a backbone doesn't mean
it's not ambitious.
Many have adapted to life in
the deep in extraordinary ways.
Sea cucumbers are actually
my favourite animals.
And my favourite of the sea
cucumber is the sea pig.
Not maybe so pretty
to look at here,
but they're absolutely gorgeous
when they're under the ocean.
It has a little
feeding tentacles.
So it kind of is like a
vacuum cleaner of the ocean.
So it picks up the food with
its tentacles and feeds itself.
And then it churns
through those nutrients
for all the other
animals in the ocean.
Of course, when we're
talking about oceans,
there are plenty
more fish in the sea.
Meet Martin Gomon, senior
curator in ichthyology.
Some of the deep
sea fish in here
are the stuff of nightmares.
But they're real.
Probably best known
to many of the people
as far as deep sea fishes
go are the predators
called deep sea anglerfishes.
Deep sea anglerfishes are
probably best characterised
by their enormous mouths filled
with huge, fang-like teeth
and the fishing rod tipped
with a luminous lure.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When we think about the
words "ocean" and "predator,"
one fish comes to mind.
But life and death are very
different in the deep sea.
Meet the viperfish.
This jar has one of
the top-level predators
in the deep sea.
The viperfish has
some of the largest
teeth of all of the primary
predators in the deep sea.
One of the misperceptions that
people have about the deep sea
is that it's full
of giant animals.
In reality, most of the animals
that live in the deep sea
are quite small.
It's said that we know
more about the moon
than the deep sea.
And while these
animals seem strange,
the deep sea is actually the
most common habitat on Earth.
Perhaps that makes
us the weird ones.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
