An unassuming little video about a submerged egg might be the most popular YouTube video to come out of Bermuda.

The video, produced by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), showing the effects of underwater pressure on an egg has garnered over four million hits.

By comparison, the famous Burnt House Hill Productions video Falling of the Rock has only a tenth of that number of hits.

BIOS’ two minute egg video has even aired on the Discovery Channel and Nippon TV.

In the video, an egg is cracked at 60ft underwater. The albumin and yolk emerge from the shell and float around intact. BIOS Dive Safety Officer Alex Hunter plays with the floating egg for a minute or two before smashing it with his hands.

“It is actually something that we do pretty regularly with the children in our WaterStart summer camp when they are doing their advanced diver certification,” Mr Hunter said. “We use the egg to get across the idea of pressure. The deeper you go in the ocean, the deeper the pressure.

“When you break an egg in a glass of water, the yolk spreads everywhere. When you are down in the ocean, the pressure holds it together. It is fascinating.”

He said colour also changes at a deeper depth, as does the brain’s ability to think quickly. The film was made by dive instructor Dean Lee who is also a filmmaker.

“We generally film over the summer and use that film to do outreach work with local schools during that year,” said Mr Hunter. “He put it on YouTube and it got over four million hits. It is a bit weird to think that my face has been seen by that many people.”

He thought the attraction was that the video seemed unusual to a lot of people.

“It is not something that crosses most people’s minds,” he said.

“It’s pretty standard to us because we are diving all the time. The children in WaterStart are endlessly fascinating by it.”

To see the video go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXCDeqjWuDg.