![]() There are fascinating mysteries down there, like the final resting place of Amelia Earhart’s plane and the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. But, as Cassie discovered during her year and a half at sea, there is so much more to ocean mapping than moving ships from port A to port B. Ocean mapping is often relegated to the world of shipping and safe navigation. That’s right-we didn’t even know where the deepest points on the planet were until Victor and Cassie decided to go find them. There’s mystery in the deep.Ĭassie Bongiovanni is the 25-year-old ocean mapper who worked with Victor Vescovo to discover the deepest points of all five oceans. With only a quarter of the global seafloor mapped and less than one percent explored, we already have another planet to explore right here on Earth. We don’t need to blast off to Mars any time soon. ![]() “NASA’s investments in space exploration dwarf ocean exploration by more than 150 to 1.” When Victor Vescovo sank to the bottom of all five oceans, he compared the plankton rushing past the porthole to the view of moving at warp speed as a rocket ship launches into space. These creatures could be a good analog for the aliens we might discover on distant planets. In the deep sea, there are animals and organisms that have evolved to live under intense pressure, without light or oxygen. The two fields also share a hunt for extreme life. Deep-sea submersibles are built to withstand a parallel universe of bone-crushing barometric pressure, freezing temperatures, and corrosive salt water, just like rovers and rockets have to tolerate the harsh conditions of outer space. The curious thing is that ocean exploration and space exploration have a lot in common. Here’s one statistic for you: NASA’s investments in space exploration dwarf ocean exploration by more than 150 to 1. Why do we know so little about the seafloor? Why do we care more about exploring distant planets? Since the late 1960s, government support for ocean exploration has dwindled, while funding for space exploration has skyrocketed. As a journalist devoted to covering the ocean, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this cliché, and yet it never fails to pique my curiosity. We know more about the moon than we do about the deep sea. Danger in the deep is a given, so safety at sea should be too, particularly as deep-sea tourism expands in the future. Unlike the uncertified Titan submersible, Victor paid a quarter of a million dollars to certify his sub and went on to successfully reach the bottom of the Atlantic, as well as the Pacific, Indian, Southern, and Arctic oceans, too. Twenty-five minutes of silence passed and then, suddenly, Victor’s voice crackled through the underwater communication system. Nothing but the soft wash of static filled the room. “Victor, can you read me?” Patrick yelled into his headset again and again. What would the team do if they lost contact with him beneath the surface? If the unthinkable happened, how would they retrieve his body thousands of feet below the surface?Ībout halfway through Victor’s first dive to the Atlantic’s deepest point, he missed a scheduled check-in with Patrick floating miles above on the support ship. Patrick Lahey, the CEO of Triton Submarines who built Victor his specially designed submersible, absolutely hated the idea of Victor going alone. He wanted to become the first person to dive to the deepest points of all five oceans-and he wanted to dive alone. ![]() In 2019, the Dallas multi-millionaire Victor Vescovo announced his intention to join these ranks of privately funded explorers. ![]() Today, the richest people in the world can pay for a personal trip to space or the deep sea. Previously, deep-sea submersibles were off-limits to the public because only the military or scientific agencies could afford such expensive equipment. The recent catastrophe of the Titan submersible implosion spotlighted the dangers of deep-sea tourism. Listen to the audio version-read by Laura herself-in the Next Big Idea App. She received a master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and currently teaches creative nonfiction at Sheridan College in Ontario.īelow, Laura shares 5 key insights from her new book, The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans. Her writing has been published and featured in the Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, Courrier International, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and Canadian Geographic, among others. In 2020, the Writers’ Trust of Canada awarded her a Rising Star award. ![]() Laura Trethewey is an award-winning environmental and ocean journalist. ![]()
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