NIC: Being an explorer these days sure isn't what it used to be.
OK, so, what do you think is past those trees over there?
Yeah, I don't think anyone's ever been there before.
Guys, you realise we can just check Maps?
Yeah, just more trees.
Oh. Erm...do you want to grab lunch?
Yeah. Lunch.
So is there any way that we can actually explore?
Well, there is one place.
It's deep, dark and full of alien life.
It's the ocean.
And while there aren't really any aliens down there,
some of the stuff sure does look weird.
Although the ocean covers around 70% of our planet,
a whopping 95% of the ocean floor is still unexplored.
In fact, we've got a better idea of what's on the surface of the moon,
Mars and even Venus.
It's something the Ocean Exploration Trust wants to change.
The organisation was set up in 2008
to explore previously uncharted territory under water,
discovering new species and unravelling the secrets of the deep.
And there are definitely a lot of them.
Aside from being home to more than half of all life on Earth,
the ocean is also the world's biggest museum.
It's estimated around 3 million shipwrecks are down there
as well as more historical artefacts
than every museum on Earth put together.
Some expert reckon if you scooped up all the sunken treasure,
you'd pocket about 80 billion.
Whoa.
So, why aren't more people scoping out the ocean floor
for some of that sweet treasure?
Well, it's incredibly difficult to get to.
The ocean is actually split up into three zones.
The first is the sunlight zone.
That's where a lot of the most well-known fish live
and it's about as far as most humans can go.
At 200m, you reach the twilight zone
where light starts to disappear.
At more than 1.000m down, sunlight disappears completely.
This is the midnight zone.
It's a cold, dark place that we still don't know much about.
It's also where huge, freaky sea life starts appearing,
like the giant squid.
But it's still not even close to the bottom in most places on Earth.
The lowest point is a whopping 11.000m down.
That's about the same depth as stacking 36 Eiffel Towers
on top of each other.
That place is called Challenger Deep in the Mariana trench.
To get a glimpse of this weird undersea world,
the Ocean Exploration Trust, or OET,
has to use special deep-sea exploration vessels
that are strong enough to deal with the enormous pressure
that comes from having kilometres of water on top of you.
With those special subs, the OET has discovered some amazing things.
Everything from shipwrecks
to breathtaking sea life.
The organisation hopes their work will inspire
a new generation of budding researchers,
all while helping unravel some of the final mysteries
still hiding right here on planet Earth.
Alright. So, are we ready to go exploring?
Yes. OK.
Do we have a million-dollar submarine?
Oh, nuts. I think we blew all our money on the sushi.