My journey to become a polar specialist, photographing, specializing in the polar regions, began when I was four years old, when my family moved from southern Canada to Northern Baffin Island, up by Greenland. There we lived with the Inuit in the tiny Inuit community of 200 Inuit people, where [we] were one of three non-Inuit families. And in this community, we didn't have a television; we didn't have computers, obviously, radio. We didn't even have a telephone. All of my time was spent outside with the Inuit, playing. The snow and the ice were my sandbox, and the Inuit were my teachers. And that's where I became truly obsessed with this polar realm. And I knew someday that I was going to do something that had to do with trying to share news about it and protect it.
Moja cesta k tomu, že som sa stal polárnym špecialistom, ktorý fotí a špecializuje sa na polárne oblasti, začala, keď som mal asi štyri roky, keď sa moja rodina presťahovala z juhu Kanady na sever ostrova Baffin, pri Grónsku. Žili sme tam s Eskimákmi. V malej komunite, ktorú tvorilo 200 Eskimákov, sme boli jednou z troch neeskymáckych rodín. A v tejto komunite sme nemali televíziu; nemali sme počítače, rádio. Dokonca sme nemali ani telefón. Všetok čas som trávil vonku hraním sa s Eskimákmi. Sneh a ľad boli mojím pieskoviskom, a Eskimáci boli mojimi učiteľmi. Tam som sa stal skutočne posadnutý touto polárnou oblasťou. A vedel som, že jedného dňa budem robiť niečo, čo bude súvisieť s prinášaním správ z tejto oblasti a s jej ochranou.
I'd like to share with you, for just two minutes only, some images, a cross-section of my work, to the beautiful music by Brandi Carlile, "Have You Ever." I don't know why National Geographic has done this, they've never done this before, but they're allowing me to show you a few images from a coverage that I've just completed that is not published yet. National Geographic doesn't do this, so I'm very excited to be able to share this with you.
Rád by som sa s vami podelil, len na dve minúty, o pár fotografií, prierez mojou prácou, v doprovode nádhernej hudby od Brandi Carlile, "Have You Ever." Neviem prečo to National Geographic urobili, nikdy predtým to neurobili, no dovolili mi ukázať vám pár obrázkov z reportáže, ktorú som práve dokončil a ktorá ešte nebola publikovaná. To National Geographic nerobieva. Takže mám veľkú radosť, že sa o to s vami môžem podeliť.
And what these images are -- you'll see them at the start of the slide show -- there's only about four images -- but it's of a little bear that lives in the Great Bear Rainforest. It's pure white, but it's not a polar bear. It's a spirit bear, or a Kermode bear. There are only 200 of these bears left. They're more rare than the panda bear.
A tieto obrázky sú -- uvidíte ich na začiatku premietania -- sú tam asi len štyri obrázky -- no je na nich malý medveď, ktorý žije v dažďovom pralese Great Bear Rainforest. Je celkom biely, ale nie je to polárny medveď. Je to medveď duch, alebo medveď Kermode. Týchto medveďov zostalo už asi iba 200. Sú vzácnejší než medvedíky panda.
I sat there on the river for two months without seeing one. I thought, my career's over. I proposed this stupid story to National Geographic. What in the heck was I thinking? So I had two months to sit there and figure out different ways of what I was going to do in my next life, after I was a photographer, because they were going to fire me. Because National Geographic is a magazine; they remind us all the time: they publish pictures, not excuses.
Sedel som tam pri rieke dva mesiace a žiadneho som nezazrel. Myslel som si, že mám po kariére. National Geographic som navrhol tento hlúpy nápad. Čo som si sakra myslel? Takže som tam dva mesiace sedel a rozmýšľal nad tým, čím iným by som sa mohol živiť, miesto fotografovania, pretože ma určite vyhodia. Pretože National Geographic je časopis; stále nám pripomínajú, že uverejňujú fotky, nie výhovorky.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
And after two months of sitting there -- one day, thinking that it was all over, this incredible big white male came down, right beside me, three feet away from me, and he went down and grabbed a fish and went off in the forest and ate it. And then I spent the entire day living my childhood dream of walking around with this bear through the forest. He went through this old-growth forest and sat up beside this 400-year-old culturally modified tree and went to sleep. And I actually got to sleep within three feet of him, just in the forest, and photograph him.
A po tom, čo som tam dva mesiace sedel -- jedného dňa, keď som si už myslel, že je po všetkom, prišiel tam neuveriteľne veľký medveď, priamo vedľa mňa, meter odo mňa, a zišiel dolu, chytil si rybu a vyšiel hore, zjesť si ju do lesa. Potom som strávil celý deň tým, že som žil svoj detský sen, sprevádzal som tohto medveďa pri jeho prechádzke lesom. Prešiel týmto ľudskou rukou nedotknutým lesom a usadil sa vedľa takého 400 ročného domorodými ľuďmi upraveného stromu a zaspal. A ja som potom zaspal menej ako meter od neho, proste tak v lese, a fotografoval ho.
So I'm very excited to be able to show you those images and a cross-section of my work that I've done on the polar regions. Please enjoy.
Takže som veľmi nadšený z toho, že vám môžem ukázať tieto obrázky a aj prierez mojej práce, ktorú som urobil v polárnych oblastiach. Nech sa páči.
(Music)
(Hudba)
Brandi Carlile: ♫ Have you ever wandered lonely through the woods? ♫ ♫ And everything there feels just as it should ♫ ♫ You're part of the life there ♫ ♫ You're part of something good ♫ ♫ If you've ever wandered lonely through the woods ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ If you've ever wandered lonely through the woods ♫ ♫ Have you ever stared into a starry sky? ♫ ♫ Lying on your back, you're asking why ♫ ♫ What's the purpose? ♫ ♫ I wonder, who am I? ♫ ♫ If you've ever stared into a starry sky ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ Aah, ah, aah ♫ ♫ Ah, oh, oh, ah, ah, oh, oh ♫ ♫ Have you ever stared into a starry sky? ♫ ♫ Have you ever been out walking in the snow? ♫ ♫ Tried to get back where you were before ♫ ♫ You always end up ♫ ♫ Not knowing where to go ♫ ♫ If you've ever been out walking in the snow ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ Aah, ah, aah, ah, aah ♫ ♫ Ah, ah, oh, ah, ah, oh, ah ♫ ♫ Oh, ah, ah, ah ♫ ♫ Ah, ah, oh, ah, ah, oh, oh ♫ ♫ If you'd ever been out walking you would know ♫
Brandi Carlile: ♫ Túlal si sa niekedy sám lesom? ♫ ♫ A všetko sa tam zdá byť také ako to má byť ♫ ♫ Si tam súčasťou života ♫ ♫ Si súčasťou niečoho dobrého ♫ ♫ Ak si sa niekedy túlal sám lesom ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ Ak si sa niekedy túlal sám lesom ♫ ♫ Sledoval si sa niekedy na hviezdnu oblohu? ♫ ♫ Ležiac na chrbte, pýtaš sa prečo ♫ ♫ Aký to má zmysel? ♫ ♫ Rád by som vedel, kto som? ♫ ♫ Ak si niekedy sledoval hviezdnu oblohu ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ Aah, ah, aah ♫ ♫ Ah, oh, oh, ah, ah, oh, oh ♫ ♫ Sledoval si sa niekedy na hviezdnu oblohu? ♫ ♫ Prechádzal si sa niekedy v snehu? ♫ ♫ Snažil sa dostať tam, odkiaľ si prišiel ♫ ♫ Vždy to skončí tak ♫ ♫ Že nevieš kam máš ísť ♫ ♫ Ak si sa niekedy prechádzal v snehu ♫ ♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♫ ♫ Aah, ah, aah, ah, aah ♫ ♫ Ah, ah, oh, ah, ah, oh, ah ♫ ♫ Oh, ah, ah, ah ♫ ♫ Ah, ah, oh, ah, ah, oh, oh ♫ ♫ Ak si sa niekedy prechádzal, tak vieš aké to je ♫
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Paul Nicklen: Thank you very much. The show's not over. My clock is ticking. OK, let's stop. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Paul Nicklen: Ďakujem veľmi pekne. Ešte nie je koniec. Beží mi čas. Dobre, tak prestaňte. Ďakujem veľmi pekne. Vážim si to.
We're inundated with news all the time that the sea ice is disappearing and it's at its lowest level. And in fact, scientists were originally saying sea ice is going to disappear in the next hundred years, then they said 50 years. Now they're saying the sea ice in the Arctic, the summertime extent is going to be gone in the next four to 10 years. And what does that mean? After a while of reading this in the news, it just becomes news. You glaze over with it. And what I'm trying to do with my work is put faces to this. And I want people to understand and get the concept that, if we lose ice, we stand to lose an entire ecosystem. Projections are that we could lose polar bears, they could become extinct in the next 50 to 100 years.
Sme neustále zaplavení správami, že ľadovce v moriach miznú a sú na svojej doteraz najnižšej úrovni. A vedci vlastne pôvodne tvrdili, že ľadovce v moriach zmiznú v najbližších 100 rokoch, potom tvrdili, že za 50 rokov. Teraz hovoria, že morský ľad na Arktíde v letnom období zmizne v priebehu 4 až 10 rokov. A čo to znamená? Po tom, čo to už nejakú dobu čítame v správach, stalo sa to proste správou. Nevšímate si to. A ja sa mojou prácou snažím upozorniť vás na to. Chcem, aby tomu ľudia porozumeli a pochopili, že ak prídeme o ľad, budeme stáť pred hrozbou straty celého ekosystému. Odhaduje sa, že polárne medvede by mohli vyhynúť v najbližších 50 až 100 rokoch.
And there's no better, sexier, more beautiful, charismatic megafauna species for me to hang my campaign on. Polar bears are amazing hunters. This was a bear I sat with for a while on the shores. There was no ice around. But this glacier caved into the water and a seal got on it. And this bear swam out to that seal -- 800 lb. bearded seal -- grabbed it, swam back and ate it. And he was so full, he was so happy and so fat eating this seal, that, as I approached him -- about 20 feet away -- to get this picture, his only defense was to keep eating more seal. And as he ate, he was so full -- he probably had about 200 lbs of meat in his belly -- and as he ate inside one side of his mouth, he was regurgitating out the other side of his mouth.
A pre mňa neexistuje lepší, zvodnejší, krajší, charizmatickejší zvierací druh v megafaune, na ktorom by som mohol založiť svoju kampaň. Polárne medvede sú úžasnými lovcami. S týmto medveďom som chvíľu sedel na brehu. Na okolí nebol žiaden ľad, ale do vody sa zosunul ľadovec a tuleň na neho vyliezol. A tento medveď priplával k tomu tuleňovi -- 360 kilovému tuleňovi fúzatému -- schmatol ho, priplával späť a zjedol. Bol tak plný, bol tak šťastný a toho tuleňa jedol tak rýchlo, že keď som sa k nemu priblížil -- asi na 6 metrov -- aby som ho odfotil, jeho jediná obranná reakcia bola tá, že tuleňa jedol ešte viac. A ako ho jedol, bol tak plný -- v žalúdku mal pravdepodobne okolo 90 kíl mäsa -- a zatiaľ čo jednou stranou úst jedol, druhou stranou zvracal.
So as long as these bears have any bit of ice they will survive, but it's the ice that's disappearing. We're finding more and more dead bears in the Arctic. When I worked on polar bears as a biologist 20 years ago, we never found dead bears. And in the last four or five years, we're finding dead bears popping up all over the place. We're seeing them in the Beaufort Sea, floating in the open ocean where the ice has melted out. I found a couple in Norway last year. We're seeing them on the ice. These bears are already showing signs of the stress of disappearing ice.
Takže kým tieto medvede majú aspoň kúštik ľadu, prežijú, ale ten ľad mizne. V Arktíde nachádzame stále viac a viac mŕtvych medveďov. Keď som pred 20 rokmi pracoval s polárnymi medveďmi ako biológ, nikdy sme žiadnych mŕtvych medveďov nenašli. A za posledné 4 alebo 5 rokov, nachádzame mŕtvych medveďov všade. Vidíme ich v Beaufortovom mori, ako plávajú v otvorenom oceáne, kde sa všetok ľad roztopil. Minulý rok som našiel pár v Nórsku. Vidíme ich na ľade. Tieto medvede už prejavujú známky stresu z miznutia ľadu.
Here's a mother and her two year-old cub were traveling on a ship a hundred miles offshore in the middle of nowhere, and they're riding on this big piece of glacier ice, which is great for them; they're safe at this point. They're not going to die of hypothermia. They're going to get to land. But unfortunately, 95 percent of the glaciers in the Arctic are also receding right now to the point that the ice is ending up on land and not injecting any ice back into the ecosystem.
Tu je matka a jej dvojročné mláďa, plavili sa stovky míľ od pobrežia, uprostred ničoho, na takom veľkom kuse ľadovca, čo je pre nich skvelé; boli tam v bezpečí. Neumrú na následky podchladenia. Dostanú sa na pevninu. Ale nanešťastie, 95% ľadovcov v Arktíde momentálne mizne takým spôsobom, že ľad končí až na pevnine a späť do ekosystému neprináša žiaden ľad.
These ringed seals, these are the "fatsicles" of the Arctic. These little, fat dumplings, 150-pound bundles of blubber are the mainstay of the polar bear. And they're not like the harbor seals that you have here. These ringed seals also live out their entire life cycle associated and connected to sea ice. They give birth inside the ice, and they feed on the Arctic cod that live under the ice. And here's a picture of sick ice. This is a piece of multi-year ice that's 12 years old. And what scientists didn't predict is that, as this ice melts, these big pockets of black water are forming and they're grabbing the sun's energy and accelerating the melting process.
Tieto tulene krúžkované sú "kalorickou bombou" Arktídy. Tieto malé, tučné knedlíky 70 kilové balíky tuku sú hlavnou oporou polárnych medveďov. A tie nie sú ako tulene obecné, ktoré máte tu. Celý život tuleňov krúžkovaných je prepojený s morským ľadom. Mláďatá rodia vo vnútri ľadu a živia sa arktickými treskami, čo žijú pod ľadom. A tu je obrázok slabého ľadu. Toto je 12 rokov starý kus ľadu, ktorý sa utvoril počas viacerých období. A vedci nepredpokladali, že keď sa tento ľad topí, tvoria sa takéto veľké plochy čiernej vody, ktoré pohlcujú slnečnú energiu a urýchľujú proces topenia.
And here we are diving in the Beaufort Sea. The visibility's 600 ft.; we're on our safety lines; the ice is moving all over the place. I wish I could spend half an hour telling you about how we almost died on this dive. But what's important in this picture is that you have a piece of multi-year ice, that big chunk of ice up in the corner. In that one single piece of ice, you have 300 species of microorganisms. And in the spring, when the sun returns to the ice, it forms the phytoplankton, grows under that ice, and then you get bigger sheets of seaweed, and then you get the zooplankton feeding on all that life. So really what the ice does is it acts like a garden. It acts like the soil in a garden. It's an inverted garden. Losing that ice is like losing the soil in a garden.
A tu sa ponárame v Beaufortovom mori. Viditeľnosť je 180 m; sme na našich záchranných lanách; ľad sa hýbe všade možne. Kiež by som vám mohol polhodinu rozprávať o tom, ako sme sa pri tom potápaní takmer zabili. No na tom obrázku je dôležité to, že je tam ten kus rôzne starého ľadu, ten obrovský kusisko ľadu hore v rohu. V jednom takom kúsku ľadu je 300 druhov mikroorganizmov. A na jar, keď na ľad svieti slnko, formuje sa fytoplanktón, rastie pod ľadom, a potom je tam širšia vrstva morských rias, a potom sa všetkým tými formami života živí zooplanktón. Takže ľad sa vlastne správa ako záhrada. Správa sa ako pôda v záhrade. Je takou prevrátenou záhradkou. Stratiť ten ľad je ako stratiť pôdu v záhrade.
Here's me in my office. I hope you appreciate yours. This is after an hour under the ice. I can't feel my lips; my face is frozen; I can't feel my hands; I can't feel my feet. And I've come up, and all I wanted to do was get out of the water. After an hour in these conditions, it's so extreme that, when I go down, almost every dive I vomit into my regulator because my body can't deal with the stress of the cold on my head. And so I'm just so happy that the dive is over. I get to hand my camera to my assistant, and I'm looking up at him, and I'm going, "Woo. Woo. Woo." Which means, "Take my camera." And he thinks I'm saying, "Take my picture." So we had this little communication breakdown. (Laughter) But it's worth it.
Tu som ja vo svojej kancelárii. Dúfam, že si nesťažujete na tú svoju. Je to po tom, čo som hodinu strávil pod ľadom. Necítim si pery; moja tvár je zmrznutá; Necítim si ruky; necítim si nohy. A keď som sa vynoril, jediné čo som chcel, je dostať sa z vody. Po hodine v týchto podmienkach, je to tak extrémne, že keď sa ponáram, takmer pri každom potopení zvraciam do svojho regulátora, pretože moje telo nie je schopné vysporiadať sa s chladom, ktorý pôsobí na moju hlavu. Takže som veľmi šťastný, že je už po potápaní. Chystám sa podať fotoaparát môjmu asistentovi a pozerám sa na neho a robím, "Woo. Woo. Woo." Čo znamená, "Vezmi mi foťák." A on si myslí, že hovorím, "Odfoť ma." Takže tam nám trošku zlyhala komunikácia. (Smiech) Ale stojí to za to.
I'm going to show you pictures of beluga whales, bowhead whales, and narwhals, and polar bears, and leopard seals today, but this picture right here means more to me than any other I've ever made. I dropped down in this ice hole, just through that hole that you just saw, and I looked up under the underside of the ice, and I was dizzy; I thought I had vertigo. I got very nervous -- no rope, no safety line, the whole world is moving around me -- and I thought, "I'm in trouble." But what happened is that the entire underside was full of these billions of amphipods and copepods moving around and feeding on the underside of the ice, giving birth and living out their entire life cycle. This is the foundation of the whole food chain in the Arctic, right here. And when you have low productivity in this, in ice, the productivity in copepods go down.
Ukážem vám obrázky bieluh morských, veľrýb grónskych, narvalov jednorohých, polárnych medveďov a tuleňov leopardích, ale tento obrázok pre mňa znamená omnoho viac, než všetky ostatné, ktoré som urobil. Spadol som dolu do tejto ľadovej diery, presne cez tu dieru, ktorú teraz vidíte a pozeral som sa smerom k spodnej časti ľadu a myslel som si, že mam závrat. Začal som byť nervózny -- nemal som žiadne záchranné laná celý svet sa mi točil -- a pomyslel som si, "Mám problém." Ale stalo sa to, že celá spodná strana bola plná miliárd rôznorožcov a klanonožcov, ktorí sa hýbali a kŕmili na spodnej strane tohto ľadu, množili a žili si tam svoj život. Toto je základ celého potravinového reťazca v Arktíde, priamo tam. A keď ich je tam v ľade málo, znižuje sa aj počet klanonožcov.
This is a bowhead whale. Supposedly, science is stating that it could be the oldest living animal on earth right now. This very whale right here could be over 250 years old. This whale could have been born around the start of the Industrial Revolution. It could have survived 150 years of whaling. And now its biggest threat is the disappearance of ice in the North because of the lives that we're leading in the South.
Toto je veľryba grónska. Údajne to má byť najstaršie žijúce zviera na planéte. Táto konkrétna veľryba môže mať viac ako 250 rokov. Táto veľryba sa mohla narodiť niekedy na začiatku priemyselnej revolúcie. Prežila 150 rokov lovu veľrýb. A teraz je jej najväčšou hrozbou úbytok ľadu na severe, kvôli životom, aké si vedieme na juhu.
Narwhals, these majestic narwhals with their eight-foot long ivory tusks, don't have to be here; they could be out on the open water. But they're forcing themselves to come up in these tiny little ice holes where they can breathe, catch a breath, because right under that ice are all the swarms of cod. And the cod are there because they are feeding on all the copepods and amphipods.
Narvaly jednorohé, tieto majestátne narvaly so svojimi 2,5 metrovými slonovinovými hrotmi tu nemusia byť; mohli by byť niekde v otvorených vodách. Ale nútia sa prísť sem do týchto drobných malých ľadových dier, kde môžu dýchať, nadýchnuť sa, pretože priamo pod tým ľadom sú všetky tie húfy tresiek. A tresky tam sú, pretože sa živia všetkými tými rôznorožcami a klanonožcami.
Alright, my favorite part. When I'm on my deathbed, I'm going to remember one story more than any other. Even though that spirit bear moment was powerful, I don't think I'll ever have another experience like I did with these leopard seals. Leopard seals, since the time of Shackleton, have had a bad reputation. They've got that wryly smile on their mouth. They've got those black sinister eyes and those spots on their body. They look positively prehistoric and a bit scary. And tragically in [2003], a scientist was taken down and drowned, and she was being consumed by a leopard seal. And people were like, "We knew they were vicious. We knew they were." And so people love to form their opinions. And that's when I got a story idea: I want to go to Antarctica, get in the water with as many leopard seals as I possibly can and give them a fair shake -- find out if they really are these vicious animals, or if they're misunderstood. So this is that story. Oh, and they also happen to eat Happy Feet.
Dobre, moja obľúbená časť. Keď budem ležať na smrteľnej posteli, budem si na jeden príbeh pamätať viac ako na tie ostatné. Hoci ten moment s medveďom duchom bol výnimočný, myslím si že už nikdy nezažijem to, čo som zažil s týmito tuleňmi leopardími. Tulene leopardie majú od doby Shackletona zlú povesť. Majú na tvári taký sarkastický úsmev. Majú čierne zlovestné oči a ešte aj tie škvrny na tele. Vyzerajú vyložene prehistoricky a trochu desivo. A v roku 2004 sa stala tragédia, pri ktorej bola jedna vedkyňa stiahnutá pod vodu a utopená, a zjedol ju tuleň leopardí. A ľudia na to hovorili, "Vedeli sme, že sú útočné. Vedeli sme to." Ľudia si radi takto vytvárajú názory. A vtedy som dostal nápad na reportáž: Chcem ísť na Antarktídu, dostať sa do vody s čo najväčším množstvom tuleňov leopardích a dať im šancu obhájiť sa -- zistiť, či sú skutočne tými útočnými zvermi, alebo sa im krivdí. Takže toto je ten príbeh. A tiež sa im podarilo zjesť tučniaka.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
As a species, as humans, we like to say penguins are really cute, therefore, leopard seals eat them, so leopard seals are ugly and bad. It doesn't work that way. The penguin doesn't know it's cute, and the leopard seal doesn't know it's kind of big and monstrous. This is just the food chain unfolding. They're also big. They're not these little harbor seals. They are 12 ft. long, a thousand pounds. And they're also curiously aggressive. You get 12 tourists packed into a Zodiac, floating in these icy waters, and a leopard seal comes up and bites the pontoon. The boat starts to sink, they race back to the ship and get to go home and tell the stories of how they got attacked. All the leopard seal was doing -- it's just biting a balloon. It just sees this big balloon in the ocean -- it doesn't have hands -- it's going to take a little bite, the boat pops, and off they go.
Máme vo zvyku hovoriť, že tučniaky sú roztomilé, preto, keď ich tulene leopardie jedia, musia byť škaredé a zlé. Takto to ale nefunguje. Tučniak nevie, že je roztomilý. A tuleň leopardí nevie, že je veľký a desivý. Takto sa proste vyvinul potravinový reťazec. Sú veľké. Nie sú ako tie malé tulene obecné. Majú viac ako 3,5 m, 450 kg. A sú tiež zvedavo agresívne. Nahrniete 12 turistov do Zodiaca, ktorý sa bude plaviť v týchto ľadových vodách a tuleň leopardí príde a kusne do člnu. Čln sa začne potápať, oni sa ženú späť na loď a prídu domov a rozprávajú o tom, ako boli napadnutí. No tuleň leopardí len kusol do balóna. On v oceáne vidí len ten obrovský balón -- nemá to ruky -- trochu si kusne, čln praskne, a je to.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
So after five days of crossing the Drake Passage -- isn't that beautiful -- after five days of crossing the Drake Passage, we have finally arrived at Antarctica. I'm with my Swedish assistant and guide. His name is Goran Ehlme from Sweden -- Goran. And he has a lot of experience with leopard seals. I have never seen one. So we come around the cove in our little Zodiac boat, and there's this monstrous leopard seal. And even in his voice, he goes, "That's a bloody big seal, ya." (Laughter) And this seal is taking this penguin by the head, and it's flipping it back and forth. And what it's trying to do is turn that penguin inside-out, so it can eat the meat off the bones, and then it goes off and gets another one.
Takže po piatich dňoch križovania Drake Passage -- nie je to nádherné. Po piatich dňoch križovania Drake Passage, sme konečne dorazili na Antarktídu. Som s mojím švédskym asistentom a sprievodcom. Jeho meno je Goran Ehlme zo Švédska -- Goran. Má za sebou veľa skúseností s tuleňmi leopardími. Ja som nikdy žiadneho nevidel. Takže sa v našom malom člne Zodiac zastavíme v zátoke, v ktorej je taký obludný tuleň leopardí. A dokonca aj on hovorí, "To je prekliate veľký tuleň, veru." (Smiech) A tento tuleň odhryzne tučniakovi hlavu, hádže s ním zo strany na stranu. A snaží sa toho tučniaka prevrátiť na ruby, aby mohol zožrať mäso z kostí, a potom sa ponorí a ide si po ďalšieho.
And so this leopard seal grabbed another penguin, came under the boat, the Zodiac, starting hitting the hull of the boat. And we're trying to not fall in the water. And we sit down, and that's when Goran said to me, "This is a good seal, ya. It's time for you to get in the water." (Laughter) And I looked at Goran, and I said to him, "Forget that." But I think I probably used a different word starting with the letter "F." But he was right. He scolded me out, and said, "This is why we're here. And you purposed this stupid story to National Geographic. And now you've got to deliver. And you can't publish excuses."
A tak si tento tuleň leopardí schmatne ďalšieho tučniaka, ponorí sa pod čln, Zodiac, začne narážať do jeho trupu. A my sa snažíme nespadnúť do vody. Sadneme si a potom mi Goran povie, "To ti je, veru, dobrý tuleň. Je čas, aby si šiel do vody." (Smiech) Ja som sa pozrel na Gorana a povedal mu, "Na to zabudni." Ale myslím, že som použil trochu iné slová. No mal pravdu. Vynadal mi a povedal, "Preto sme tu. A ty si National Geographic navrhol tú hlúpu reportáž. A teraz sa musíš ponoriť. A nemôžeš uverejňovať výhovorky."
So I had such dry mouth -- probably not as bad as now -- but I had such, such dry mouth. And my legs were just trembling. I couldn't feel my legs. I put my flippers on. I could barely part my lips. I put my snorkel in my mouth, and I rolled over the side of the Zodiac into the water. And this was the first thing she did. She came racing up to me, engulfed my whole camera -- and her teeth are up here and down here -- but Goran, before I had gotten in the water, had given me amazing advice. He said, "If you get scared, you close your eyes, ya, and she'll go away."
Mal som strašné sucho v ústach -- pravdepodobne nie až také ako mám teraz -- no mal som strašné sucho v ústach. Klepali sa mi nohy. Necítil som si ich. Nasadil som si plutvy. Ledva som vedel roztvoriť pery. Vložil som si do úst dýchaciu trubicu a prevalil som sa zo Zodiaca do vody. A toto bola prvá vec, ktorú urobila. Prihnala sa ku mne, zabrala mi celú kameru -- jej zuby sú odtiaľ až potiaľ -- no Goran mi predtým ako som vošiel do vody, dal skvelú radu. Povedal, "Ak sa začneš báť, zavri oči, a ona odíde."
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
So that's all I had to work with at that point. But I just started to shoot these pictures. So she did this threat display for a few minutes, and then the most amazing thing happened -- she totally relaxed. She went off, she got a penguin. She stopped about 10 feet away from me, and she sat there with this penguin, the penguin's flapping, and she let's it go. The penguin swims toward me, takes off. She grabs another one. She does this over and over. And it dawned on me that she's trying to feed me a penguin. Why else would she release these penguins at me? And after she did this four or five times, she swam by me with this dejected look on her face. You don't want to be too anthropomorphic, but I swear that she looked at me like, "This useless predator's going to starve in my ocean."
Takže to bolo všetko, čo som vtedy mal k dispozícii. No začal som proste fotiť tieto fotky. Takže pár minút predvádzala tieto výhražné prejavy a potom sa stala tá najúžasnejšia vec -- úplne sa upokojila. Odplávala, chytila si tučniaka. Zastavila sa asi 3 m odo mňa, usadila sa tam s týmto tučniakom, tučniak sa trepoce a ona ho pustí. Tučniak pláva ku mne, potom zmizne. Schmatne ďalšieho. A robí to stále dookola. A potom mi došlo, že sa ma snaží nakŕmiť tučniakom. Prečo by ich inak na mňa vypúšťala? A po tom, čo to urobí tak štyri alebo päť krát, prepláva okolo mňa s takým deprimovaným výrazom na tvári. Nechcem byť veľmi antropomorfný, ale prisahám, že sa na mňa pozrela s výrazom, "Tento nepoužiteľný predátor mi tu vyhladovie v mojom oceáne."
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
So realizing I couldn't catch swimming penguins, she'd get these other penguins and bring them slowly towards me, bobbing like this, and she'd let them go. This didn't work. I was laughing so hard and so emotional that my mask was flooding, because I was crying underwater, just because it was so amazing. And so that didn't work. So then she'd get another penguin and try this ballet-like sexy display sliding down this iceberg like this. (Laughter) And she would sort of bring them over to me and offer it to me. This went on for four days. This just didn't happen a couple of times. And then so she realized I couldn't catch live ones, so she brought me dead penguins. (Laughter) Now I've got four or five penguins floating around my head, and I'm just sitting there shooting away. And she would often stop and have this dejected look on her face like, "Are you for real?" Because she can't believe I can't eat this penguin. Because in her world, you're either breeding or you're eating -- and I'm not breeding, so ...
Keď si uvedomila, že nedokážem chytiť plávajúcich tučniakov, chytila ďalších a priniesla ich pomaly ku mne, takto pohupujúc a potom ich nechala ísť. Nefungovalo to. Tak strašne som sa smial a bol som z toho tak dojatý, že sa mi zaplavovala maska, pretože som plakal pod vodou, pretože to bolo proste úžasné. A tak to teda nefungovalo. A tak chytila ďalšieho tučniaka a vyskúšala také baletné zvodné pohyby kĺžuc sa takto dolu ľadovcom. A potom ich akoby priniesla ku mne a ponúkla mi ich. Toto sa dialo štyri dni. Nestalo sa to len párkrát. A potom, keď si uvedomila, že nedokážem chytiť živých, priniesla mi mŕtvych tučniakov. (Smiech) Teraz mi okolo hlavy pláva štyri alebo päť tučniakov a ja si tam len sedím a fotím. Často sa zvykla zastaviť a mala na tvári ten skľúčený výraz ktorý sa pýtal, "To myslíš vážne?" Pretože nemohla uveriť tomu, že neviem zjesť tučniaka. Pretože v jej svete sa buď množíte alebo kŕmite -- a ja som sa nemnožil.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
And then that wasn't enough; she started to flip penguins onto my head. She was trying to force-feed me. She's pushing me around. She's trying to force-feed my camera, which is every photographer's dream. And she would get frustrated; she'd blow bubbles in my face. She would, I think, let me know that I was going to starve. But yet she didn't stop. She would not stop trying to feed me penguins.
A to nebolo ešte dosť; začala mi tučniakov hádzať na hlavu. Snažila sa ma prinútiť jesť. Nútila ma do toho. Snažila sa prinútiť jesť môj foťák, čo je snom každého fotografa. A keď začala byť frustrovaná, vyfúkla mi do ksichtu bublinky. Myslím, že sa mi tak snažila povedať, že umriem od hladu. Ale aj tak neprestala. Neprestala sa ma snažiť nakŕmiť tučniakmi.
And on the last day with this female where I thought I had pushed her too far, I got nervous because she came up to me, she rolled over on her back, and she did this deep, guttural jackhammer sound, this gok-gok-gok-gok. And I thought, she's about to bite. She's about to let me know she's too frustrated with me. What had happened was another seal had snuck in behind me, and she did that to threat display. She chased that big seal away, went and got its penguin and brought it to me.
A v posledný deň s touto samicou, som si myslel, že som to nechal zájsť príliš ďaleko, znervóznel som, pretože prišla ku mne, pretočila sa na chrbát a vydala hlboký hrdelný brutálny zvuk, také gokgokgokgok. A pomyslel som si, že sa ma chystá uhryznúť. Že sa mi chystá dať najavo, že je zo mňa už príliš frustrovaná. Stalo sa to, že sa ku mne zozadu nenápadne priblížil ďalší tuleň a ona toto urobila preto, aby dala najavo hrozbu. Zaplašila toho obrovského tuleňa preč, odplávala a chytila tučniaka a priniesla mi ho.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
That wasn't the only seal I got in the water with. I got in the water with 30 other leopard seals, and I never once had a scary encounter. They are the most remarkable animals I've ever worked with, and the same with polar bears. And just like the polar bears, these animals depend on an icy environment. I get emotional. Sorry.
Nebol to jediný tuleň, s ktorým som bol pod vodou. Pod vodou som bol s ďalšími 30 tuleňmi leopardími a ani raz som s nimi nemal nijakú desivú skúsenosť. Sú to najpozoruhodnejšie zvieratá, s akými som doteraz pracoval a to isté platí pre polárne medvede. A tak ako polárne medvede, aj tieto zvieratá závisia na ľadovom životnom prostredí. Dojalo ma to. Prepáčte.
It's a story that lives deep in my heart, and I'm proud to share this with you. And I'm so passionate about it. Anybody want to come with me to Antarctica or the Arctic, I'll take you; let's go. We've got to get the story out now. Thank you very much.
Je to príbeh, ktorý žije hlboko v mojom srdci a som hrdý na to, že sa o neho môžem s vami podeliť. Som z toho tak nadšený. Ak so mnou niekto chcete ísť na Antarktídu alebo Arktídu, vezmem vás, poďme. Musíme tento príbeh šíriť ďalej. Ďakujem veľmi pekne.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Thank you.
Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Thank you.
Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Thank you. Thanks very much.
Ďakujem. Ďakujem veľmi pekne.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Thank you.
Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)