Hi everyone! We are the producers of the documentary miniseries Spy in the Ocean. For this installment we created more than 30 realistic animatronic spy creatures to explore the seas and capture never-before-seen animal behavior. The Spies we created include a whale calf (our biggest yet!), shark, dolphin, manatee, cuttlefish, octopus, seal, crab and many more. Utilizing the latest subsea technology, these robot lookalikes ventured to the depths of the ocean floor to interact with their animal counterparts, communicating with them and mimicking their patterns. We're happy to answer your questions about how these robots work, what we discovered, and more!

Spy in the Ocean is currently airing on PBS on Wednesdays at 8/7c (check local listings). You can watch the first two episodes now at pbs.org, YouTube, or on the PBS App.

If you're in the UK, you can watch the whole series on the BBC iPlayer.

Answering questions at 11 am ET / 4 pm UK will be:

• Matthew Gordon, series producer. Matthew has been working in the wildlife film industry for over 20 years. Before entering the film industry, Matthew received a BSc degree in Biology and an MSc in Palaeobiology from the University of Bristol. He specialized in human evolution and primatology and worked in various environments from the rainforests of Madagascar to the deserts of Arizona. He then started his career at John Downer Productions in the edit suite, cutting sequences for BBC/Discovery programs like Tiger - Spy in the Jungle and Swarm. For the first two series of Spy in the Wild, he spent 6 years working across the world from filming orangutans in the jungles of Borneo to sea otters in Alaska. For Spy in the Ocean, Matthew fulfilled a lifelong dream to film humpback whales in French Polynesia and a 'megapod' of spinner dolphins in Costa Rica.
• Huw Williams, series producer. Huw studied at Aberystwyth University where he got his BSc in Zoology before joining John Downer Productions in 2009, when he first started working on Earthflight/Winged Planet and Polar Bear Spy on the Ice. From filming wolves in the Artic to sea snakes in the ocean depths of Indonesia, Huw has been fortunate to gain many experiences while filming wildlife around the world. Spy in the Ocean highlights for Huw include diving with giant shoals of hammerhead sharks, working on getting the spy hammerhead into the heart of the shoal, and filming the spy cuttlefish as it communicated with an amorous cuttlefish looking for a mate.
• Philip Dalton, executive producer. Philip has a BSc degree in Environmental Biology and his wildlife filmmaking career spans over 25 years. He started out at the BBC Natural History Unit before moving onto IMAX productions, eventually landing with John Downer Productions. His programs have collected numerous awards from the Royal Television Society, Wildscreen and more, along with an EMMY for Best Cinematography for Winged Planet. Philip is instrumental in developing and operating the specialist camera devices used on the Spy films, shooting main camera for some of its most memorable sequences.

Username: /u/SpyInTheWild