INTO THE ABYSS
We have better maps of Mars than of our own seabeds, but a new deep-ocean survey aims to address that – and raise awareness of ‘the beating heart of our planet’
THE radio crackles into life and the command is given from somewhere far away. “You’re clear to dive. Dive, dive, dive.” We tip forwards, then slosh backwards, like an ungainly ice cube bobbing in a glass. There’s a hiss of bubbles as the ballast tanks vent and the sea swallows us whole, in one frothy burst. All is suddenly quiet, apart from the gentle thrum of our engine as we begin our descent into the deep blue. At 30 m, one jellyfish pulses somewhere in the distance and a small shoal of rainbow runners dart past, but we’re otherwise alone, falling slowly through an endless expanse of steadily darkening blue.
This should be a peaceful experience, but my heart is beating triple-time and By INDIA STURGIS the heat is almost unbearable. We’re neatly ensconced inside a $2,2-million (about R31,9-million) piece of apparatus that wouldn’t look out of place on the moon and has a dry weight of more than three tons, and it’s as hot as a greenhouse thanks to our time on the surface on a cloudless Bermudan day.
The underwater pilot explains that at 304 m below sea level – the depth at which this particular two-person submersible best operates – the temperature is significantly cooler.
But today we’re venturing only to 60 m in this electrically powered inverted human fishbowl because the tracking system isn’t working properly – not words a nervous journalist likes to hear, but the product of a live operation and new technologies being used together for the first time.
The aquanaut in charge is Patrick Lahey, president of Triton Submarines and one of the most experienced sub pilots in the world who’s accrued more than 1000 dives in 30 years.
Unlike with scuba, there’s no need to decompress thanks to a pressurised transparent hull made of 90 mm-thick acrylic – almost like a giant eyeball – that passengers sit inside, giving them a 360degree view of the seascape around. It’s what Lahey calls, in his Florida drawl, a “shirt-sleeve environment”.
Last year David Attenborough explored the Great Barrier Reef in a similar model, and the giant squid – a creature that can grow to the length of a bus but is hardly ever seen because of the great depth at which it resides – was first filmed in its natural habitat from one in the north Pacific Ocean four years ago.