Plymouth scientists win £2m to use AI in deep-sea mapping

By the time the ocean returned to that region, sediment had covered the salt, isolating it from the seawater. These worms house bacteria within their “roots” that take advantage of the sulfur in the bones to make energy in a process called chemosynthesis. Up to 190 different types of these bacteria have been found on a single whale carcass, and up to 20 percent of those are also found living around hydrothermal vents. They say we know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean, which is what made it so incredibly exciting when scientists decided to do what the rest of us are too chicken to, dive down to the seabed to get a look at what’s lurking there.

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By valuing and safeguarding the deep ocean, we ensure a healthier planet and the preservation of life’s strangest, most fascinating forms for generations to come. Hydrothermal vents, for example, host ecosystems that thrive without sunlight, challenging our understanding of where and how life can exist. Studying these environments can reveal insights into resilience and adaptation, possibly helping us tackle challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. The deep sea, a vast and largely unexplored realm 200m beneath the ocean’s surface, is one of Earth’s most mysterious and awe-inspiring places. The deep sea is not just a scientific frontier; it is a reminder of the vastness and complexity of our planet.

• Understanding the deep sea as a highly sensory place that allows for porous human–non-human encounters helps us acknowledge the agency of the beings that inhabit it.
• These layers of ocean ooze are important carbon sinks—drawing down the decomposing bits of carbon, laying them to rest on the seafloor, and finally burying them.
• The metals that companies are targeting are used in many green technologies like electric cars and wind turbines – but mining them is destructive to the environment.
• With mining for polymetallic nodules on the horizon, Judah emphasized the need for more research to fully understand the effects on sharks, rays and chimeras.
• “The ocean is highly connected, so there will probably still be impacts on these animals,” Judah said.

Whales

• Biological collections from the Curasub off Curaçao have resulted in the discovery of numerous new and rare species of fishes, marine mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans.
• The intrinsic long-term benefits of a healthy ocean far outweigh any short-term incentives offered by deep seabed mining.
• In the pursuit of REEs, US President Donald Trump, through an April 2025 Executive Order, has indicated that the ocean floor could become the newest battleground between China and the United States.
• The sudden arrival of food prompts creatures from afar to congregate and feast on the fleshy carcass.
• The whale’s roundness symbolises the idea of the globe as something to be conquered, mapped, and controlled, while its elusiveness reflects the unattainable nature of these desires when driven by capitalist and colonial imperatives.

In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great sent Greek naval expeditions down the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. This work represents one of the most detailed in-situ surveys of biodiversity and habitats in the hadal zone to date. Mary is a staff writer for the HIR interested especially in the intersection between global politics, energy, and climate change.

Deep-sea squid

This is possible thanks to biochemical reactions in which compounds known as luciferins react with oxygen and the enzyme luciferase. In this way, many jellyfish, but also some species of fish, squid, and other deep-sea fauna can emit a blue, green, or in some cases even red light. This is done e.g. to attract potential mates, lure in prey, or to illuminate their surroundings with organic “searchlights”. They primarily feed on carrion-eating amphipods, which can be found in abundance near their food sources. Experiments have revealed how quickly and efficiently bits of food that sink to the seafloor are put to use.

List of fauna species found in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba

The construction of a speculative seabed archive through the language of common heritage can thus, practically speaking, become a tool of colonization. In the blue archive, the notion of a ‘resource’ or ‘cultural artifact’ is thereby invented alongside the designation of others as obstacles (ocean waste, natural turbulence, indigenous communities, environmental fragility) (Han 2024, 45-46). The rich diversity of the Red Sea is in part due to the 2,000 km (1,240 mi) of coral reef extending along its coastline; these fringing reefs are 5000–7000 years old and are largely formed of stony acropora and porite corals.
The materials collected would then be piped up to a surface vessel for processing. Any waste, such as sediments and other organic materials, would be pumped back into the water column. It is estimated that millions of species inhabit the deep ocean, many of which have yet to be discovered and described by science.
The latest round of talks ended in July 2025, and negotiations will resume in 2026. Anthropological reflections on how the remote, seemingly human-less deep sea is rendered knowable—via visualisation, digitisation, and data extraction—have turned attention toward the embodied experiences of scientists themselves, particularly as they operate marine robotics. Oceanographers’ reliance on sensors and robotic technologies—deeply entangled with the sea’s material and affective dimensions—produces novel sensory relationships between humans and nonhumans (Helmreich 2009; Lehman 2020). In a similar vein, the anthropology of outer space has highlighted the embodied engagements of scientists with their technological surrogates, such that they ‘become rovers’ by learning to ‘see like a rover’ (Vertesi 2015). Sediment plumes have emerged as a significant conceptual and analytical lens through which the deep sea is examined Deep Sea in the social sciences. They are characterised as ‘spectral’ phenomena, existing at the threshold between the perceptible and imperceptible, the visible and invisible (Han 2024).

Climate Change & Ocean Warming

Just as canyons funnel water, seamounts also influence the flow of water, often diverting deep currents. They are often found at the edges of tectonic plates where magma is able to rise through the surface crust. When dense, nutrient rich ocean currents hit the seamount they deflect up toward the surface, allowing marine life to thrive on the newly supplied food.
Another frequently used definition considers all waters beyond the reach of light from the surface to be part of the deep sea. Understanding the deep sea as a highly sensory place that allows for porous human–non-human encounters helps us acknowledge the agency of the beings that inhabit it. In contrast to portrayals of the deep sea as an empty, lifeless void, ethnographic writing reveals it to be a vibrant, non-human-rich ecosystem—one that may even be haunted by ‘ghosts’ (Palermo 2022). Scientists first learned of these symbiotic relationships through the study of the Riftia tubeworm. Upon first discovering hydrothermal communities in 1977, scientists were perplexed by the diversity and abundance of life. The worm’s blood red plumes filter the water and absorb both oxygen and hydrogen sulfide from the vents.

Seafloor Habitats

Most people onshore remain unaware of ‘those dark, remote, and unexciting practices that take place in locations so vastly removed from the ocean’ (Braverman 2024, 4). Flashy displays may seem easy to spot, but in the dark expanse of the deep, distance and the immense area can make even bright lights hard to see. Deep sea animals will often have enlarged eyes that can pick up even the faintest light, ensuring a rare encounter leads to a meal or a mating. The Phronima, an invertebrate resembling Ridley Scott’s Alien, uses two sets of eyes, one large set in front and one on the sides. Research that included Smithsonian scientists found that the large eyes allow it to see at longer distances and the smaller eyes provide low resolution vision of nearly the entire area surrounding them, enabling them to catch anything close by. Their carcass, pickled and preserved, serves as a warning of the toxic landscape below.
(T)he boundaries of the human are no longer central to the reflection on abyssal architecture. … The design of a cohabitation reef becomes the technical, and even ontological, challenge of architectural work. The sea is known for its recreational diving sites, such as Ras Mohammed, SS Thistlegorm (shipwreck), Elphinstone Reef, The Brothers, Daedalus Reef, St. John’s Reef, Rocky Island in Egypt64 and less known sites in Sudan such as Sanganeb, Abington, Angarosh and Shaab Rumi.