More than 50 years ago, two men reached the deepest point in the ocean: the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench at 35,800 feet. Crammed into a small sphere suspended underneath the large bathyscaphe Trieste, marine scientist Jacque Piccard and then Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh spent a short time on the bottom (according to Walsh, the bathyscaphe stirred up the bottom on its final approach and visibility was minimal, but some small sealife was detected). A feat accomplished, a record achieved.
And that was it.
Mankind has never returned to those extreme depths; instead, turning its attention skyward in a political race to the moon. A race that I was caught up in like many others and with few complaints; the spin-off technologies from the space program have brought us countless benefits. But there was an incredible amount of technology and potential knowledge left behind, waiting just below the waves.
As Richard Branson described it in 2011, "What if I were to tell you about a planet, inhabited by 'intelligent' beings that had, in the 21st century, physically explored zero percent of its deepest points and mapped only 3 percent of its oceans by unmanned craft, when 70 percent of that planet's surface was made up of water. Then I tried to convince you that only 10 percent of the life forms inhabiting that unknown world are known to those on the surface--you'd think I'd fallen asleep watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster. Then you discover that planet is Earth."
It seems, though, that things are about to change. A new race is shaping up and this time it is not motivated by political one-upsmanship but by a desire for mankind to turn its attention inward, to learn more about the oceans that cover the majority of this planet. In so doing, we may learn of new bounties for our benefit or may understand more about how the oceans function and what is happening due to our activities topside, from pollution to climate change.
While presidential candidates talk of bases on the moon, four organizations involved in the design and building of deep sea submersibles are looking downward, hoping to return once again to the Marinas Trench. And the first attempt in over a half century may take place in the next few weeks.
The four groups - Triton Submarines, DOER Marine, Virgin Oceanic, and film director James Cameron's Deepsea Challenge - have submersibles in various stages of design, construction or actual operation. But the two leading contenders at the moment are Richard Branson's Virgin Oceanic - working in conjunction with Hawkes Ocean Technologies - and Cameron's Deepsea Challenge, working in conjunction with the National Geographic.
All of these groups have the technological expertise to design submersibles that can withstand the extreme pressures of the Marianas Trench, a bone-crushing 15,750 psi, but what probably distinguishes the two leaders is the deep financial pockets at their disposal to make it a reality.
Based in Northern California, Graham Hawkes' Hawkes Ocean Technology produces a fascinating fleet of submersibles that look more like stubby-wing fighter jets. They are designed to fly through the water. I had a moment to speak with Hawkes at the 2010 BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Ocean Summit and, seeing that the design was quite different from your typical research submersible, I asked him what they were designed for. "For chasing after whales," he joked.
Hawkes had designed his Deep Flight Challenger to explore depths as deep as the Marianas Trench and was preparing to make the attempt with pilot Steve Fossett at the controls. Unfortunately, Fossett was killed in a small plane crash but a new pilot stepped in, Chris Welsh, along with the support of Richard Branson's Virgin Group. The overall plan for Virgin Oceanic is to send the Deep Flight Challenger on five of the deepest dives locations on the planet, which includes the Marinas Trench. The long-range goal is not just to reach the deepest point in the ocean - although that would undoubtedly bring the most attention - but to show that extreme deep sea exploration is viable. This is not a stunt; it is an attempt to show that man can and should be turning his attention to exploring the deep recesses of this planet as there is much to learn, and even gain materially, in the process.
James Cameron has melded technology and entertainment into many of his films (blockbusters like Titanic, Avatar, and the early Terminator films), but he has proven himself to be much more than an armchair science explorer and deep sea exploration became a particular area of serious interest and financial investment. Working with National Geographic (Cameron is an Explorer-in-Residence there) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, among others, the Deepsea Challenger submersible was built and has already completed a five-mile dive to the New Britain Trench near the Solomon Islands.
The Deepsea Challenger is more utilitarian than elegant in appearance - a lime green cylinder, positioned vertically, with an array of lights midway and a spherical compartment at the lower end that has room for one pilot with a viewing window. Cameron intends to be the pilot, as he was on the recent deep dive, and though exact schedules are being kept under wraps, it has been said it might only be a matter of weeks before the Deepsea Challenger makes its attempt to return to the Marianas Trench.
"This quest was not driven by the need to set records, but by the same force that drives all science and exploration … curiosity. So little is known about these deep places that I knew I would see things no human has ever seen. Every dive teaches us more, and we are continuing to improve the sub and its systems daily, as we move through our sea trials,” says Cameron on the Deepsea Challenge website.
In the end, whoever gets there first, the Marianas Trench will once again be visited by terrestrial beings and, if it is to truly have any meaning and value, it must be seen in the context of exploring the vast oceans to better understand this crucial aquatic lifeblood that is key to the planet's survival. Whether it is finding new mineral resources, or new species, or better understanding the processes that make the oceans function - and therefore understanding how best to conserve and protect them - deep sea exploration is a pursuit that is within our reach and makes more sense in today's world.
We're not ready to pack up and move to another planet, so we best understand and protect the one we have now.
The ocean is an incredible laboratory for studying the complex intricacies of life itself. From the sea all life first came, so what better to place to learn. But it's not exactly a controlled environment where men and women in starched white lab coats can measure, test, and analyze in sterile, secure labs. No, out in the elements, it can be a challenging place where not all goes according to plan.
Dr. Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue organization knows this first hand as they have been attempting to study the after effects of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. It has been an expedition of successes and frustrations, but that is nothing new to anyone who has spent time on the seas.
There are many unanswered questions regarding the Gulf Oil Spill. Where has all of the millions of gallons of oil settled? Dissipated, evaporated, or consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms? Has it settled into the deep sea floor and is this having an impact on the many small bottom-dwelling forms of sealife that make an important foundation in the marine ecology. What of the many fish, like whale sharks and bluefin tuna, that migrate through the Gulf or use it as a primary breeding ground? Has there been an impact on them or their eggs or other larvae?
The list goes on and on.
"Speaking as a scientist,"said Mission Blue researcher Eric Hoffmayer, "this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico sort of caught us off guard. We don't know a lot about many of these animals. Whether it's whale sharks, tiger sharks, makos, whatever, we don't know what their habitat use is in the region. We don't have the baseline data. Without understanding how they use this environment, we don't know how the spill will affect them." Ups and Downs The Mission Blue expedition, supported by National Geographic, the Waitt Institute, and Dr. Earle's Hope Spots LLC, has been in the Gulf several times over the past few months. It has had great success in tracking down whale sharks that have been known to congregate in an area named Ewing Bank, off of Louisiana. This location is in relatively close proximity to the site of the spill. By tagging and tracking the sharks, in addition to studying the condition of the food sources that the sharks are living on as they pass through the area, researchers hope to gain some insight as to whether the oil has had an adverse impact on these huge filter feeders.
Mission Blue's latest expedition to the Gulf was planned as an opportunity to study marine life on the deep seafloor using the advanced ROV, Medusa, and travel throughout the water column, assessing the health of the openwater community using the two-man submersible, Deepworker. While the Medusa had several successful initial dives, using its red-lit video camera systems (red light, which fades quickly with depth, is less disturbing to deep water marine life as they are less sensitive to it), later dives were scrubbed due to rough seas.
Those wind-whipped seas continued to play havoc with a series of planned dives using the Deepworker submersible. A few dives were completed in shallow water, where Dr. Earle and Harte Research Institute director Larry McKinney had to contend with poor visibility - lots of phytoplankton to see up close but "big picture" views of the surrounding open water seascape were limited at best. As the expedition is drawing to a close, famed author and ecologist Dr. Carl Safina came aboard to share his experiences, having spent considerable time in the Gulf during the spill, and to hopefully get some dives in himself.
Perseverance in the face of challenging conditions is a fundamental requirement of ocean exploration. And if we are to understand the full ramifications of our actions on complex marine ecosystems with regards to oil drilling at sea, expeditions like that being undertaken by Mission Blue and other organizations will endure what nature throws their way and they will continue. The answers to so many questions must be found before we find ourselves faced with another environmental disaster; the result of our own ignorance.
Read about tracking whale sharks in the Gulf in NatGeo News Watch. Read about Mission Blue's ROV and submersible in the SEA blog.
A precocious child at the age of, let's say, ten has his or her first encounter with the wonders of the sea, perhaps at a local aquarium; or a vacation at the beach, wandering about the tidepools; or simply by watching an underwater wildlife documentary. Suddenly a spark is ignited and a future marine scientist and explorer is born.
That spark becomes a fire that continues to burn to adulthood and now the freshly-minted ocean explorer enters the world of academia or corporate research in search of a living. And that's when things can change. The bureaucracy and politics of these new working environments - where papers must be regularly written, departments must have their spotlight of attention, or private companies must meet a corporate agenda - take the budding scientist further and further away from that original inspiration, that sense of pure research and exploration.
The Undersea Voyager Project (UVP), headed by Scott Cassell, has a mission to bring that original sense of exploration back to the marine scientist. Providing submersible platforms for research and study, UVP has a long-term goal of circumnavigating the world through the ocean's most vibrant depths, from near surface to 1,000 feet. It's an alternative approach in that scientists can make use of UVP with one caveat: the resulting data is open for the world to benefit from. Institutions may be reluctant to get on board with such a heretic approach, but scientists from a wide variety of marine fields have expressed interest; an interest to reconnect with that first motivating spark once again.
Through the month of October, the Undersea Voyager Project is operating at Catalina Island in Southern California. Working with the Antipodes, a five-passenger submersible owned by Seattle-based Oceangate, Cassell has been plumbing the depths of this local California island attraction, discovering wreckage from Cold War era listening stations to evidence of never-before-seen underwater landslides.
I had the opportunity to join the UVP and Oceangate team this past weekend to film the Antipodes underwater as it ran through some checkout dives and will be joining them again shortly to film Scott for a German television program and take more promotional video. There is a list of scientists and educators that plan to participate while the Antipodes is available through this month, hoping to discover what secrets might be lying just a few hundred feet below in the waters off bustling Southern California.
There are discoveries waiting to be made and secrets to be uncovered. But maybe the greatest discovery or secret is the moment when a researcher can once again connect with those youthful impulses that drove him or her to be an ocean explorer in the first place.
Visit the Undersea Voyager Project website. Visit the Oceangate website.
The RTSea Blog was started in 2008 and now includes over 950 entries available for media or academic background research use, including observations on a wide range of topical issues and events involving the oceans, sharks, and nature in general. After a brief break in 2012-13, there will now be more posts forthcoming.
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Cinematographer/media consultant & producerRichard TheissandRTSea Mediaadministers this blog with the intent that information will be disseminated across the Internet and, in so doing, will illuminate others as to the serious challenges that lay before us in preserving and protecting our natural resources.
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More than 50 years ago, two men reached the deepest point in the ocean: the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench at 35,800 feet. Crammed into a small sphere suspended underneath the large bathyscaphe Trieste, marine scientist Jacque Piccard and then Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh spent a short time on the bottom (according to Walsh, the bathyscaphe stirred up the bottom on its final approach and visibility was minimal, but some small sealife was detected). A feat accomplished, a record achieved.
James Cameron has melded technology and entertainment into many of his films (blockbusters like Titanic, Avatar, and the early Terminator films), but he has proven himself to be much more than an armchair science explorer and deep sea exploration became a particular area of serious interest and financial investment. Working with National Geographic (Cameron is an Explorer-in-Residence there) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, among others, the Deepsea Challenger submersible was built and has already completed a five-mile dive to the New Britain Trench near the Solomon Islands.
