With 95% of the ocean floor unexplored, the deep sea is Earth’s last frontier.
Its pioneers are scientists leveraging the latest technology to cast light on the massive
and incomprehensibly dark environment that extends more than 35,000 feet down.
Until recently, this world was known only to our planet’s most unearthly species.
This is the story of our largest biome—and the people devoting themselves to understanding
it and saving it for future generations.
40 years ago we discovered hydrothermal vents, which act as Earth's plumbing system, transporting
chemicals and extreme heat from the molten core of our planet, helping to regulate the
chemical makeup of the oceans.
But this seemingly toxic environment is still home to life.
Organisms that don’t need photosynthesis to survive can live down here.
And with most of the seafloor left to explore, many species remain undiscovered.
Studying these unlikely ecosystems can teach us about the earliest stages of life’s evolution
here on Earth, and about the possibility of life on other planets.
That’s why NASA is working with oceanographers to help plan the mission to explore Jupiter's
ice-covered moon, Europa.
And because these vents form in active volcanic zones, they also help us better understand
how land forms and moves over time.
Plus, the sludge that’s constantly spewing from the vents contains some of the most valuable
metals known to man.
[Guardian video journalist] “In the deep ocean, where the water is as dark as ink,
lie riches that no treasure hunters have managed to retrieve.
They are deposits of precious minerals, from cobalt to gold, that have tantalized miners
and nations for decades...”
In 2019, a Canadian company will make the first-ever attempt at extracting these minerals.
Using the latest technologies and massive, custom designed vehicles, it aims to bring
up $1.5 billion worth of metals from a single site 25km off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Nautilus says it will minimize environmental damage by using infrared cameras and sonar
to pinpoint the exact location of ore deposits, allowing it to shred less of the ocean floor.
But environmentalists aren’t buying it.
Preserving a sensitive ecosystem 8,000 feet underwater from the impact of mining is just
not that simple.
Unfortunately, we may not have much choice.
There’s growing demand for these metals, but dwindling supplies of them on land.
Cobalt — for instance — is used in jet engines, lithium ion batteries, and the computer
or smartphone you’re watching this video on—and the machines we made it on.
But this age-old clash between miners and environment is really just one chapter in
a much larger story of technology development—innovations aimed at maintaining the delicate balance
of the increasingly threatened ocean ecosystem.
One such tool is the EK80 broadband acoustic echo sounder.
It uses a range of frequencies to paint a much more comprehensive picture of the amount
and types of species living in a selected area of water.
“What you see can be very different at different frequencies.
For example if you’re using very low frequency sound you’re not going to see the zooplankton.
So you might think, ‘oh, the ocean is empty, there’s nothing here.’
But then you look at a higher frequency and suddenly you see the zooplankton.
People think that there’s much more biomass locked down in the mesopelagic zone.
It has been grotesquely underestimated.
As a biologist I want to know, ecological meaningful quantities like how many animals
are present, what size are they, what kind are they?”
Species mapping should also help identify the areas of the ocean where the most life
exists, from the ocean floor all the way up to the surface.
Allowing us to then protect those areas.
Only 5% of the ocean is currently protected in some way, compared to 15% of land.
Another urgent problem is multi drug-resistant bacteria that kill thousands of people a year.
By gathering microbes from different parts of the sea, researchers can test many different
combinations to create the most effective medicines.
“We’re finding microbes that produce really interesting chemistry, and could be used to
develop new therapeutics in the future, from bermuda off the backs of trichodesmium which
is a small phytoplankton, from mud samples off the coast of Vancouver, and from right
off the beach here in shore lab, from - of all places - a comb jelly.
We’ve only cultured 1-2% of all marine bacteria.
So can you imagine the chemical diversity waiting there to be discovered, described,
and harnessed?”
Biofluorescence, which has revolutionized neuroscience over the past two decades, is
yet another powerful tool that came from the ocean.
These proteins were first found in corals, but marine biologists like David Gruber have
discovered that many animals also possess this light-altering trait.
[David Gruber] “We set out looking for this one fish, and, in the process we discovered
20 other.
We began thinking, what about sharks?”
Glow-in-dark sharks are pretty cool, but the most critical area of ocean research surrounds
climate change, and how our planet’s interconnected ecosystem will be affected in the future.
The atmospheric physicist Susan Avery summarized this in a TED talk a few years back.
“Not only is that infusion of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere inducing warming on the
planet, it also is inducing major chemical changes on a global scale in the ocean.
And that bottom curve shows what’s happening in terms of the pH, which is a measure of
the acidification of the ocean.
The ocean uptakes carbon from the atmosphere.
When that carbon dioxide enters the ocean, it dissolves, it becomes more acidic.
As the upper layers mix with the lower levels, the pH decreases and you have a more acidic
global ocean.”
Irish oceanographer Triona McGrath expanded on this point during a recent TED talk of
her own.
“There has already been an increase in ocean acidity of 26 percent since pre-industrial
times which is directly due to human activities.
Unless we can start slowing down our carbon dioxide emissions, we’re expecting an increase
of ocean acidity of 170% by the end of this century.
I mean this is within our children’s lifetime.
This rate of acidification is ten times faster than any acidification in our oceans for over
55 million years.
So our marine life have never ever experienced such a fast rate of change before.
So we literally could not know how they’re going to cope.
Now there was a natural acidification event millions of years ago which was much slower
than what we’re seeing today, and this coincided with a mass extinction of many marine species...”
We’re already seeing evidence of acidification damaging corals and shellfish.
As acidification increases, the shells of many of these species will stop growing and
eventually begin to dissolve.
Pteropods, for example, play a vital role in the ocean’s food system, feeding everything
from krill to salmon to wales.
In one terrifying experiment, the shell of the pteropod was placed into seawater with
a pH level that we’re on course to experience by the end of the century.
After just 45 days, you can see how the shell has almost completely dissolved.
Facts like these underscore the important role oceanic research plays in preparing humanity
for the challenges that lie ahead.
One man who’s been instrumental in the field of deep sea discovery is Robert Ballard.
A leading explorer of shipwrecks, Ballard has led the takeover of Remote Operated Vehicle
exploration.
His large research vessel, the E/V Nautilus, is equipped with four ROV’s.
“Ballard is using one of the most sophisticated exploration systems ever assembled.
It allows him to go where noone has gone before.
Our vehicles are designed to go to 20,000 feet, so we’re not restricted by depth.
In fact, I prefer going deep.”
But what makes Ballard’s set-up truly state-of-the-art is its cutting edge telepresence system.
The Nautilus crew can beam live, HD video of microbes at the bottom of the sea to a
biologist sitting in front of an internet connected computer anywhere on Earth, helping
to stretch the extremely tight budgets of oceanic researchers everywhere.
But not every explorer is ready to give up the benefits of seeing a new place with their
own eyes.
In 2012, the deep-pocketed director of Titanic, James Cameron, piloted a submarine he designed
and built himself, the Deepsea Challenger, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest
part of the ocean.
[Cameron] “Touchdown.
Surface, this is Deepsea Challenger.
I am on the bottom.
Depth is 35,756 feet.
And everything looks good.”
[Bryce] After completing his expedition, Cameron generously donated the multimillion dollar
vehicle to the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Manned submersibles have played an important role in the brief history of ocean exploration,
but the discovery of the RMS Titanic, whose story Cameron famously told in his 1997 blockbuster
film, was actually made by Robert Ballard and his unmanned Remote Operated Vehicles.
“September 1st, 1985.
1am.
[Ballard] Initially we didn’t know if we were on the right trail until that magic moment
when the boiler came underneath our cameras.
‘Look at that, what the hell?
Ooh!
God it looks nice.
It’s a boiler!
Looks like a boiler.
It’s a boiler!
Yes, yes.
[cheering]’ We had a picture of that boiler on the wall of the control room and everyone’s
head looked to the picture, looked back and we knew it was the Titanic.
‘Goddamn!
Break out the champagne!’”
[Bryce] Just like they had done in the search for the Titanic, unmanned Remote Operated
Vehicles can stay submerged for days at a time.
And, with technology getting better by the day, land-based researchers watching on their
computers will feel more and more like they’re right down there with the robot on the bottom
of the ocean.
“When I started, ALVIN was really the only effective way to get to the seafloor, to do
science on the seafloor.
ROV’s were not a primary tool for getting to the seafloor.
In the 25 years I’ve been at the institution, ROV’s have progressed to the point where
now they’re a completely valid scientific tool and they’re in use all around the world.”
“This vehicle is equipped to handle all sides of deep sea exploration.
These are brand new cameras that we got and they’re just phenomenal.
We get detail that you couldn’t see in a manned submersible, through a porthole.”
But regardless of whether we use humans or robots, what matters most is that we’re
giving our scientists the resources they need to continue exploring, learning, and sharing
what they’re finding.
“These are the moments I live for.
You spend all this time out on the sea and then, in between all the searching, you make
these incredible discoveries.
Pushback, pushback, pushback.
Make discoveries that completely rewrite history.
That is what an explorer wants to do.”
Thanks for watching.
We had a lot of fun exploring the Future of Farming, and since you seemed to enjoy it
too, we’ll continue this series with the Future of Internet Infrastructure as one of
our next videos.
That idea was based on an awesome comment suggestion.
Those really help us out, so keep them coming.
Until next time, for TDC, I’m Bryce Plank.