Oarfish | This Legendary Fish That Announces Tsunamis

Hello, I am the director of this show shot in 2015 and take the opportunity to answer to some of the comments and questions. This film has been filmed in Japan ( for stranded animals) and in the Med sea, offshore my hometown Marseilles. We encountered SEVERAL oarfish which measured between 2 and 9 meters long and belong to the species Regalecus glesne. Note that the original film was natively shot in UHD and will soon be available in this format with 5.1 surround sound. On a big screen, this would make a real difference. Indeed, this could be scary to dive at night in 2000m deep water, even if we mostly spent our time between the surface and 50 meter deep: we established strict safety protocol to avoid loosing our team members which included safety lights and deco-stops. Diving in this offshore location requires dead flat sea conditions where currents are at their minimum. On a windy day, the currents could be so strong that the massive buoy is dragged under the surface ! It took us 2 seasons ( mostly spring/ early summer during planktonic bloom) to be able to can all the footage you see in the show. If I was to shoot this show again, current advances in deep sea diving ROVs would bring another dimension to the story and could be able to film more behavior of this elusive fish. To answer the question about the scariest moments, Roberto Rinaldi did have some pretty insane "drags" to the land of hyper pressures: while framing for the animal, he did not figure out how deep he was until his ears went difficult to compensate the 6 x atmospheric pressure that prevails 50 meters below the surface... then he gently returned back to the surface with several deco stops ! To answer other questions ( I have provided some other answers directly when asked for): 1) there is not a single CGI in this film (except for the MRI scanner which has been performed by a vet in Japan and produced a cloud of points); all the footage of the oarfish are live, in its natural environment 2) I am not an AI ! 3) we are working on other factual projects with elusive deep-sea animals but we need a lot of expensive ressources to venture into the depths. The challenge is to capture natural behavior of animals which are used to perpetual darkness 4) the close caption issue will soon be adressed by the publisher of my film 5) we publish from time to time some samples of our work on our company (Saint Thomas Productions) social medias 6) our speciality is science, environment and wildlife factual films. 7) the original score of this film has not (yet) been released 8) we have used the imperial system for units, as the client (National Geographic Channels) requested it - we have a series of alternative metric takes with the same actor (James Faulkner): we will change this soon. 9) this film was shot on RED DRAGON cameras, in 5K to 6K, 16 bits, original format, as well in 3D stereo with 2x C400 Canon Cameras for an IMAX project which has not materialized 10) I have nothing to do with the "tsunami" hook created by the publisher. But such belief is indeed deeply anchored, albeit not scientific at all, in Japan.

to be honest, when I started watching this documentary I did not plan on watching it all the way through. It is quite late. Yet there wasn't a choice. This was beautiful. Thank you for all your work

When I studied marine biology in the 80s my teacher said that no one had ever seen a live oarfish (outside of "still alive but mostly dead" or "sea monsters"). Thanks for bringing me up to date on these weird creatures! :-)

This documentary is amazing, truly. I almost came to tears when the oar fish appeared when they were filming at night. So majestic and beautiful.

It's rare for a maritime documentary to offer so many new facts and insights in this wonderful world. Really a step forward in understanding a small part of the oceans mysteries

It's amazing just how many dives were done in order to get less than an hour of footage, but the data is well worth it. Such a beautiful creature.

If not for the bravery and expertise of the divers, none of this would have been possible. Thank you for bringing such immense beauty and knowledge for many of us enjoying this video at home. It's truly fascinating, interesting and an eye opener.

I came across this video by accident, and being a diver myself, I was very interested in watching the divers and hearing about the scientific studies around this wonderful fish. Kudos to the divers and scientists who are working so hard to better understand this strange fish. I was mesmerized throughout this video. Thank you!

The Oarfish is such a majestic creature!! Wow, this was such an amazing documentary! Beautiful cinematography and soundtrack. This might sound funny, but I though that everything about it was very calming and soothing, while keeping us very interested. I feel very relaxed after watching this. Major respect for the divers & crew's dedication and patience, and to all of those so dedicated to study this beautiful creature!

Most beautifully done. I couldn't begin to imagine what this fish has to offer us without having the divers, scientists and filmmakers bringing it all together. Tyvm!

What a beautiful and majestic fish, I love his peacock like antennas and silver colour. You could see the divers hand reflexion on it, like a mirror .. Also his fins light up and move so gracefully, very mystical fish. I hope that they are safe and prolific forever.

Staggering documentary! Incredible! Thank you, thank you to the film makers, the brave skilled divers, thank you to the teams involved. I am amazed at this remarkable fish, and amazed at the remarkable people who made this footage possible. Thank you 💐🌹💖

I just love how the light ripples through it's dorsal fin, the chimes added in were the perfect sound effect for how dazzling it looks

I'm constantly amazed by undersea footage. My son is working on a NOAA fisheries research ship along the Atlantic Coast, and I've started watching a lot of whatever I can find on YouTube to get some sense of what he's doing & seeing every day. It's so mysterious to me (even though I've lived most of my life in NYC, one of the great harbor cities, with plenty of beach access) - my only real experience with the ocean is a lifetime of swimming (when I was younger, I drove lifeguards mental by going out past the breakers) - but that only scratches the surface of what lies beneath

This was the most interesting and captivating documentary about anything that I've seen in a long time. The footage, especially of the biomass migrations, is just jaw-dropping. What a beautiful creature the Oarfish is. Thank you for braving the depths of the ocean to bring us this glimpse of the unknown!

i have watched nearly countless scientific videos, documentaries and lectures. Your work and the work of others seen here is beyond my ability to describe what a wonder it was to watch. Thank you.

Came for the tsunamis, stayed for everything else😊 Excellent job on the documentary! You guy's bravery and dedication on this awesome project does not go unnoticed.

Incredible. Nothing terrifies me more than deep ocean exploration. Congratulations on this amazing work.

I wish the remarks from the divers had also been translated. They had a lot to say but I don't speak French or Italian so don't know what they were saying. Or, indeed, whether or not they were both speaking French. I was mesmerized. This was truly well done.

Wow that diver with his rebreather system and silvered dive suit looks like a Wizard of the Water. Until they mentioned that rebreather, I couldn't figure out what was so magical about his appearance. I haven't seen footage of divers without bubbles in decades, and I was mesmerized by the images.