(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

species on the planet.

I am in awe of this creature right now.

I cannot believe how big it is.

I was hoping maybe we would find one

about the size of my hand.

This is about maximum size,

and I want to count its legs really quickly.

Because I want to tell you guys about that.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...

18 legs.

Now, I have read that the maximum number of legs

that the radius disc that makes up its body can grow is 20.

This thing has 18 legs.

Now, when they start off and they're small,

like many sea star species, they only have around five legs,

and as they grow, as that center disc grows,

they have more arms that then grow off.

Now what I'm going to do...

No, I'm not going to be spiked by the crown-of-thorns.

At least not intentionally.

- [Camera Man] Can you at least see how sharp they are?

- Yes, I will see how sharp they are.

But what I want to do first is just wear

this pair of dive gloves to see

if I can gently pry it off the bottom and actually hold it,

because it will be much easier for your presentation.

- [Camera Man] It can spike through those gloves.

- It can.

That's why I want to try to handle it as gently

as I possibly can.

Wow, look at that animal.

Unbelievably bizarre looking.

Like a living pincushion.

- [Camera Man] You can really see it

losing its shape already.

- Yeah they do.

Now the body is very gelatinous.

You'll begin to notice it starts to droop

as I'm holding it up and out of the water.

Now, these animals can stay out of the water

for a significant amount of time,

but I am going to have to keep dunking it down

so that it keeps its structure.

- [Camera Man] I don't even know what to say about this,

it's like a combination of a sea cucumber,

and a sea urchin, a sea star, an octopus...

- It's like many things all at once.

Now, all of these legs are prehensile.

Which means they can move independently,

and they help this animal grip to the sides

of rocks when it's under the water.

And like other sea-star species,

if they lose one of their limbs,

they can actually regenerate that limb,

which means that it will grow back.

And its tube feet, let me turn it like this.

Can you see all the tube feet on the underside?

- [Camera Man] Oh man, they're like little mushrooms.

- Yeah well, they're like little mushrooms

and have little suction cups on the end.

And they use those tube feet

to move through the environment.

Now, we found this one on a big flat rock.

Which is where they usually try to hang out

to keep their body spread out,

and as they're slowly moving along,

what they will actually do is regurgitate their stomachs.

How gross is that?

And then the stomach will lay on top of the coral

and digestive enzymes will break it down,

and it will slowly slurp up the remains,

leaving behind nothing but a coral skeleton.

Alright, I'm going to set it back down

into the water here for a second.

Really gently.

And they are rather fragile.

I have to be real gentle, I don't want to be spiked.