Today is a big day because in this video we are about to have our very first ever close encounter with a deep sea creature. Now I know what you're thinking Mark where is the boat you've got to head way off shore to do something like that but I'm here to tell you well we're going we don't need boats. Welcome to Aquarium Encounters which also happens to be one of the only places in the world to encounter the creature we're after today. Wow are you kidding me? Look how cool these are. I mean I cannot believe we are standing right in front of this many deep sea giant isopod. We've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight giant isopod in the tank in front of us to learn all about in today's video. Whoa this is incredible. I cannot believe we're standing in front of these creatures. There are about 20 variety of them that live in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian oceans very very deep at the bottom. We're talking anywhere from 700 to 7,000 feet. Wow that is deep and about half of the isopods on planet Earth live in the ocean and half of them live on land. Although these are the largest isopods that you can find. The ones that live in your backyard are those small little pill bugs though. Rolly-polly is related directly to the giant isopod. Now even though they look like it these isopods are not insects. They're not bugs. They are actually more closely related to crabs and lobsters and oh boy they are super weird looking. I will admit but man are they cool. If you were to come visit the aquarium anyone is allowed to touch the deep sea isopods. This is a touch tank. In fact there are ports all around the top here and yep that water is cold definitely kept below 50 degrees at all times but anyone can come up and pet the giant isopods. But today we are getting extra special permission to remove the top of the aquarium and get really hands on because I want to get the giant isopods as close to the cameras as possible. Because these animals live in the deepest parts of the ocean they need to keep their aquarium here as cold as possible. So this water is kept around 50 degrees Fahrenheit at all times to mimic the deepest parts of the ocean. Alright here goes nothing time to get hands on with the giant isopod. Well this is creepy. There we go. Whoa oh man. Wow look at that alien that is unbelievable. Look at that face a face only a mother could love. I think you're cool though. Alright why is the giant isopod so giant? I mean it's cousin the roly-poly is probably 1,000th of its size. Well the most well accepted theory is deep sea giganticism which is found in a variety of animals most notably in the squid species. Of course you probably heard of the giant squid or the colossal squid that are huge. Same goes with the giant isopod much much larger than any of its terrestrial or shallower relatives. Now there are around 20 species of large isopods that live in the deep sea but this one is the biggest and there are two size ranges. There's giants and super giants. A giant isopod will be anywhere from three to six inches and a super giant like this one can be up to two feet and length. And I would say the one in front of us here is approaching maximum size. Look at that creature. This is too cool. Now the exoskeleton is really rigid. A lot like a lobster or a crab. I can really feel the rigidity of those segments. The underside is very soft. I can actually press in on the belly of the beast. That is wild. I did not expect a giant isopod to have softer parts like that. And on the underside here we have the pleopods which can also be found on animals like lobsters and these are the swimming appendages of this animal. Yes believe it or not although this looks like an insect that can only crawl around the giant isopod is an excellent swimmer. And what's also really cool about the pleopods is these are the appendages that allow the animal to breathe. There's actually a gas exchange that occurs in those parts of the animal. The legs feel super creepy but not that menacing. Now we'll move up from the legs and we want to take a closer look at that head. So you'll notice the giant isopod has pretty big eyes. In fact their eyes are specially developed for very dark environments. When you get below a thousand feet in the ocean you enter what's called the midnight zone where almost no light can travel. So for their entire lives these animals live in almost complete darkness. They have pretty poor eyesight. They're not very responsive to light changes at all and they rely most of their lives on navigating around and understanding their environment through these four antenna appendages here. There's two sets of antennae. The small ones at the top are chemical sensing. So this is what's going to help them find their food. It's going to help them understand what other animals or organic things are around them in the environment. And then you have the feelers the two longer antenna underneath and these two antenna are used to feel their way around their environment which is completely dark. I'm having a fairly hard time hanging on to it. It's definitely trying to get back down to the bottom of the tank. Its legs are equipped with these grappling hooks. It's almost like a claw like a lobster claw. In fact yeah look at that. It's got my finger in its front claws there and they can actually squeeze down and can grapple on and what they use those claws for are breaking apart their prey and forcing the food to the mouth. Yes it looks strange and I could tell you its diet is even stranger. These are carnivorous creatures of the deep sea and they will eat just about anything that they can get their mouths on. I'm talking deceased fish. I'm talking whales. Researchers have even fed alligators to these animals to see if they would eat something that's not native to their environment and yes they absolutely will. And because of their appetite for all things deceased you're probably asking yourself what would happen if a human ended up down there at the bottom of the sea. Yes as morbid as it sounds if a human ends up in their environment it's on the menu too. Now I want to find something out. You know obviously I'm keeping my fingers and hands away from those mouth parts all video long but now it's time to find out. Does the isopod have a taste for human flesh? Should we find out? Let's give it a quick try. You guys ready for this? That water is cold and I know those mouth parts those four sets of jaws are extraordinarily sharp. Oh this is creepy. So I'm gonna put the mouth right on my arm and see what happens. Ready? One, two, three. You see it? I could feel it poking around. It's trying to figure out what's going on. That's what it's claws are digging in. The water is so cool. Nothing. Just wants to hang out and I wanted to show you that for a reason because although these creatures can look menacing they are absolutely gentle giants and they would never fight a human being in this circumstance. There's no need to fear this animal. If you ever come out to this aquarium I highly recommend that you check out the giant isopod touch tank because getting the hands on or even having the chance to touch an animal from the abyss like this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. All right well my hands are freezing. I'm gonna put our isopod friend here back at the bottom of the tank. I hope everybody at home enjoyed this look at our first ever deep sea creature. I'm Mark Vins, be brave. Stay wild. We'll see you on the next adventure.