Explore the Depths of Aruba’s Underwater World

Things you are seeing might not be what you think they are. For example, from where I'm sitting here, I'm looking outside, I see what looks like plants growing outside, growing out of the sand. Those are not plants. What you see growing out of the sand there are soft corals. Corals are colonial organisms. They are animals that eat and grow while they're in the water. The hard coral is born that way. We have two types of coral. The hard coral and the soft coral. The hard coral is the one that looks like stones, rocks and plants. The stony coral, they have a hard extra shell, external shell, much like a skeleton. And as the coral heats, it fills up. Now, if you look at the coral through a microscope, you'll see thousands of tiny animals at the top called polyps. And on these polyps, they have six tentacles, stinging tentacles that they sting microscopic animals and consume it. One of the things that the coral eats are zooplankton. Now, if you looked at SpongeBob, you must have heard of the plankton. But I didn't look at SpongeBob. But the plankton is a Greek word. Zoo meaning animal and plankton meaning wanderer. So this animal wanders around in the ocean. And when it wanders over the coral, then the coral uses its tentacles to kill it. When it consumes it, it converts it into calcium. And it fills up on the inside of the coral. Now, coral are colonial. And as they continue to eat, they continue to grow. But they grow about an inch a year. However, if a coral gets breaking up by bad weather, like a hurricane would break the coral, all the pieces that break up will form their own colonies. And it will grow back to the size of the original colony within a year. So the coral breaking up is actually an advantage for the coral reef. That's how a barrier reef is formed. Whenever a hurricane or bad weather comes, it breaks up, it grows back, it breaks up, and it grows larger every time. Now, there are two types of brain corals. The brain coral got its name because of its shape. It is shaped like the human brain. It has a sphere shape. But there are lots of designs on it that reflect the human brain. They have two types. We have the kingdom, which identically emulates the human brain. And you have the phylum, which the spots are a lot smaller. It's not so readily visible that it's a brain coral. Then we have the sheet coral. The sheet coral is the coral that looks like layers of mushroom laid on each other. Then we have the fingered coral, which looks like potatoes stacked on each other. The soft coral are the plant-like corals that do not become hard because of a chemical inside of the coral. When it eats the plankton, it doesn't become hard. It remains soft. Now, looking outside, if you look very closely among the reef, you will see a tiny fish. That fish is called the bicolor damselfish. The bicolor damselfish is very, very territorial and aggressive. If you look very closely, you will see it attacks anything that comes close to where it is living. It is so aggressive, it's starting to affect the other fish on the reef. The bicolor damselfish is so aggressive that whenever we go to clean the windows of the submarine, it attacks me and bites on our boots. And then it does something in the water that makes it feel as if the water is vibrating around your feet. Yeah. Now, looking out the window, there's a brown-looking fish at the window called a brown chromey. Chromeys are fish that swims against the current to feed themselves. They don't hunt for food. Now, looking outside, what looks like rocks and plants, those are neither rocks nor plants. What they are is corals. There are two types of corals. Hard corals and soft corals. The hard corals come in three families. They have the brain coral, the latical coral, and the male coral. The brain coral looks like the human brain. It has all the marks, but it has two types of brain corals. One that is identical to the human brain. That is called the kingdom. And the one that looks less like the human brain is called the phylum. They are the two brain corals. There is also the coral that looks like mushroom latics. We also have the coral that looks like a potato. That is the male coral. The color red disappears and the neon colors become brighter. You need to take a picture of your shirt. You have a very expensive shirt on that changes colors. The color red is the first color that is lost in the ocean because of the density of the water. The water is 400 times more dense than the air. That is why the color red is not transmitted without artificial light. You need to take a picture of your lips. The color purple. And of your husband because now he is using lipstick. He has no excuse. Take a picture of him when he gets home. Look, my dad used to use lipstick in the submarine. Another thing, as we go deeper, you will notice that the hard corals are becoming much less. The soft corals continue to be existing, but the hard corals are not. You are also seeing more sponges. You see the purple tube sponge, purple vase sponge, purple barrel sponge, and a very unique sponge known as the orange crusted sponge. The orange crusted sponge is highly venomous. Oh, ship, ship with a P, Marco. If you are looking out your window, you are looking at a ship. This ship is called the Morning Star. This ship was built in Holland in a city known as Vlissingen on the island. But coming down towards the end of the project, the shipping company went out of business and this ship was left abandoned in the harbor of Aruba. After some years, the government turned it over to Atlantis who cleaned it up and sunk it here on purpose so it could become an artificial reef and can be used as an attraction for the submarine. But the ship took it a step further. It has now become a five-star hotel for the fish, known as the Morning Star Resort and Timeshare. The song says, You're not in a yellow submarine, a red submarine, it's a white submarine. You're not in a yellow submarine, but a white submarine, a white submarine. There's a fish that inhabits this Morning Star, does not want to leave. This fish is called the lionfish. The lionfish is an invasive species in the waters of Aruba. It is originally from the Pacific. That would be the Indo-Pacific, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It is believed and speculated that this fish used to be in aquariums in Florida and when the owners got fed up of these fish, they threw them into the ocean. If you're wondering why they would get fed up of these fish, well, the lionfish characteristic is they don't eat until they are filled. They just eat continuously as long as there is food. So all who had these lionfish in their aquarium filled with other fish, every day when they got up, they were missing three or four fish. So they threw them into the ocean, unaware that there are no natural predators to the lionfish in the Caribbean. The lady next to you, she's number two. You will be number none. You know, but I'm clairvoyant. What he says, you are number one and two. Turtle on the port side, look down. Look down, if you see it, show your neighbor, turtle. Show the person next to you. There it is. Right here. Oh my God. Yes, they do. And get very big. And travel very far. The turtles that you see around here, usually they are not born here. They nest here, leave, go thousands of miles away and come back and nest again. This is actually nesting season. Now, if you're looking at the ocean floor, that is below 114 feet. Look at the amount of corals that are growing on the floor. And corals need warm water and sunlight. But you're looking at the reason why they grow. Here you have the midushi number one. This ship was sunken here 32 years ago. All the wood is gone. And all is left now are the corals that have come because of the presence of the wood in the water. And have become a sanctuary for snappers, where snappers can nest and grow. Yes. Here you see the tube sponges. Those are the ballast weights and the metal structure that held the ship together. Those are the purple tube sponges. We're now coming up alongside the Morning Star. This here is the other side of the Morning Star. We're just proving to you we sunk both sides of this ship, not just the one side. And here you can see clearer the white spots. You see the white spots on it here? All those white spots. Those are the clamshells. And this fish, the trigger fish, it has double fins. So it can swim just like a fish swims, or it can turn to the side and swim like how a bird flies. Yes. It's a weird looking little creature. And then it comes up to the side of the submarine. And because it can turn in two positions, then it can stay horizontally and open the clamshell. Yes. But this is 100 feet. Can you hold your breath so long? Okay. Maybe you have to catch the fish. The pearl might be in his stomach already. Touchdown. We are resting on the ocean floor. Round of applause for our pilot. Now I'm sure I have some people, some people here who are on my side who simply don't like Elton. Because he's fresh out of place. So you have to answer him. Vamos a responderlo en su propio idioma. You're going to answer him in his native language. You're going to say after me. No. Bota loco. Tell him. No. Bota loco. Did you hear what he said? A little bit. We asked him if he's crazy. He said a little bit. So you know what? We ain't done with him yet. We got some more things to tell him. Say after me. Bota mala gradisi. Yes. You know what you told him? No. You are crazy and ungrateful. Yeah, he's ungrateful. And gratitude is his name. Elton in ungrateful John. No, he doesn't think about him anymore. Okay, folks. Now it's time for us to have a party down here. We're going to sing happy birthday from the choir first. We're going to have happy birthday. And when we get to the part that says happy birthday dear, then we're going to stop singing. All the birthday folks are going to shout their name out loud. Then we'll say happy birthday to you. On three. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday my dear. And may God bless you. And may you live long. God bless you.