As a small charitable research institute, our mission is to collaborate with others and act as a catalyst to find new ways to accelerate scientific discovery of the ocean. The vast majority of deep ocean research is funded by governments. Our goal is simple – to explore the depths of the ocean and reveal the unknown. But the opportunity to work with Nekton has been a highlight. I have been fortunate to work in some fascinating areas of ocean research during my career as a scientist. We do know that its health is vitally important for a healthy planet, and our own healthy lives. The deep ocean is our planet’s largest and most critical ecosystem yet it remains the least known part of our planet. I do have a passion for the sea and my life as a scientist has all been about trying to understand more about it. Apart from the occasional communication with the surface, it is blissfully quiet during descent as the weight of the submersible and the flooded ballast tank carries you downwards without the need for noisy thrusters. The acrylic transparent pressure hull feels as if it disappears when you are underwater, affording the sensation of floating like a voyeur in our planet’s inner space. The subs were used extensively throughout the BBC’s Blue Planet II series. David Attenborough was taken down in one when filming on the Great Barrier Reef.
They are incredible pieces of technology – a sci-fi fantasy made real.
Nothing can prepare you for your first dive in a Triton, a new breed of submersible.
#BLUE PLANET DEEP SEA CREATURES YELLOW FULL#
Full of wonder, she says, but always obsessed with details. I’ve already told you that!” “But mum,” I replied, “it’s a different colour and this one’s bigger and it’s not really the same shape.” My mother always says that is when she realised I was going to be a scientist. Then I found another equally bizarre creature nearby. “Mum,” I said, “what’s this?” She told me it was a starfish. I was scrambling around in some rock pools and found a strange, brightly coloured sea creature.
My mother always tells the story of when I was a five-year-old on a family holiday at the seaside. I have always had a fascination with the sea. It was the realisation of a dream that began when I was a child. I was part of Nekton’s first Mission to explore and research the state of the ocean. I was descending in a two-person Triton submersible at 50ft a minute, down the side of an extinct volcano a few miles off the coast of Bermuda. “A cow? Repeat: A cow? What’s a cow doing down there?” the underwater telephone crackled as the Surface Officer relayed what he had heard.
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