Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles (suspenseful drums and strings) (intense horns and drumming) - [Coyote Voiceover] The Pacific Ocean is as blue as one might imagine in their dreams. And if you travel 2,500 miles off the Southwestern coast of North America, you will find a series of land masses known as the Hawaiian Islands. This lush paradise seems as if it would be the perfect place to encounter numerous species of animals. However, truth be told, the wildlife is few and far between. It's distance proximity to any main continent has kept it rather void of your typical reptiles, amphibians, insects, and arachnids. However, what it lacks in its creatures to feature on land, it makes up for tenfold with its rich plethora of marine life. - Look at all the poop. - Are you rolling? - [Camera Man] I'm rolling. - Alright guys, now you may notice we're pretty excited out here, because today is our first scuba diving adventure. Now, we will be exploring Whalers Cove. This is the same place we scouted the other day when we were snorkeling. We saw tons of marine animals. Today is going to be a little different because we will be scuba diving. Now, to catch an animal, it's not going to be easy. So I'm bringing with me this giant blue bucket. The goal is to slowly coax an animal into this, bring it up to the shoreline, and then get it up close for the cameras. Wish us luck, guys, and get excited, because today is going to be one epic dive. - [Coyote Voiceover] It's one thing to explore the Hawaiian tide pools. It's another thing to snorkel along the reefs. And it's a completely different world the minute you go 25 feet beneath the surface with a dive tank. Mark and I had recently become dive certified, and today was going to be our very first open water ocean dive. Safety is everything when it comes to submerging yourself into the great unknown of the ocean. So we carefully assembled our dive gear and checked it thoroughly before heading down to the shoreline. Woo! It is hot out here. Okay, guys, my BCD is weighted properly, got my air tank hooked up. It's time to strap into this puppy and get out there under the water. - [Man Off Camera] Alright. - [Coyote Voiceover] For those of you who are not scuba certified, let me take a moment to tell you that the instant you deflate your Buoyancy Control Device, there is a moment of sheer terror as your body sinks toward the ocean floor like a bag of rocks. In your mind you know that the regulator in your mouth contains the precious air that your lungs so desperately need, so you trust what your brain is telling you, and slowly you begin to breathe. This is the point where your heart rate begins to even out. You are breathing underwater, and you are not drowning. Then you open your eyes and realize that you are beneath the ocean waves in a world you never imagined existed. You look around, gather your bearings and coordinate with hand gestures to your dive team that everything is absolutely okay. Ah yes, your dive team. One of the most important rules about diving is that you never, and I mean never, dive alone. So today we will be exploring alongside Mike and Brian, two veteran divers who know this area and its animals incredibly well. Our goal was to find an animal that we could safely catch and bring to the surface for a presentation. And as our dive fins propelled us forward, we immediately began to admire the schools of brightly colored fish as they darted in and around the massive coral structures. We saw enormous sea urchins armed with razor-sharp spines, and big squishy sea cucumbers that were nearly the size of my arm. These were good candidates. However, they were also species we had come upon in the tide pools. So we continued further, keeping our eyes on the lookout for something even more bizarre. (steel drum music) The art of diving takes some getting used to, and the real key is to take your time. For a human, life beneath the surface moves in slow motion. So, as long as you pace your breathing and let your dive fins do all of the work, the experience is absolutely magical. For beginner divers like Mark and myself, a tank of air should last around an hour. And as it turns out, this was plenty of time to find our star animal, because around forty minutes in we came across the one and only crown-of-thorns. This large sea star is armed with hundreds of razor sharp, venom-lined spines. So it was a risky maneuver, but I managed to use the edge of my GoPro tripod to gently coax it from its hold on the rocks and into our bucket. (suspenseful music) Success! This was the perfect animal to bring above the waves and present in front of the cameras. So we clasped down the lid and headed toward the surface. (light music) - Woo! We got one. - And by got one, what he means is the one and only crown-of-thorns sea star. This is one dangerous bucket right here. They're extremely venomous. Fortunately, we got it safely up off of the rocks and into the bucket without being spiked, and now it's time to get it into a controlled setting so we can get up close for the cameras. - Dude, I think I got that shot perfect. I swam right down and I had you come in right up to it with it in the foreground, oh man. - It couldn't have been in anymore perfect position, I was able to get on the backside of the rock, and what's cool is they actually come off the rocks much easier than I thought. I was able to just use the backside of the GoPro AquaPod and it kind of floated it up, and right into the bucket. - [Mark] Wait until you guys see, it barely fits in this bucket. - [Coyote] It's big. - [Mark] It barely fit in there. - It is a big sea star. Alright guys, lets get up here. - Go this way. - Wow, this bucket is a lot heavier on land than it is in the water. And inside is one very toxic marine creature. Are you guys ready to meet the crown-of-thorns? - [Camera Man] Let's see it. - Okay, now what I'm going to do is slowly pry off the top of the bucket. Let me see where it's at here. Woo! Still down on the bottom. Look at this, the entire circumference is filled with sea star. - [Camera Man] Now is it upside down right now? - It is upside down, which is actually working in our favor. Now, what I'm gonna do is very slowly pour the water into this Tupperware container, and then the sea star will gently crawl in there. There we go. - [Camera Man] And a perfect flip. - There we go. Look at you. Woo! Alright, let's take a minute to admire the size of this animal. Now, this is one of the largest growing sea star