In 2008, only 64 institutions—including universities and research centers from the Global North—had the capacity to connect to the live telepresence of deep-sea expeditions. It required a connection of 2 gigabytes per second, which in turn demanded special channels beyond commercial internet services. To enable telepresence, the vessels needed a special antenna to connect to a geostationary satellite, which then transmitted the signal to a ground antenna at the University of Rhode Island. From there, the signal was sent through Internet2 to those who had the ability to receive such a massive flow of data per second.

The institutes with these connections usually organized viewing rooms with at least three huge screens to watch the live images captured by the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), along with sensor data measuring environmental conditions. I had the chance to visit the room at the University of Hawaii, and it was truly impressive. In addition to video and audio, they also had a system to communicate directly with the crew and scientists on board the expeditions. Since the exploration operated 24/7, scientists on shore also worked in shifts to follow the expedition, assist with identifications, and even request physical samples when needed.

The credit for making this possible goes to the Ocean Exploration Trust, operating the R/V Nautilus founded by explorer Robert Ballard, and to NOAA with the Okeanos Explorer. However, a quantum leap came when the Schmidt Ocean Institute joined with the Falkor and other vessels. Thanks to the affinity of its donors with Google, they made it possible to broadcast telepresence through YouTube.

At the height of social media, this opened the door to the democratization of information from the most expensive deep-sea expeditions on Earth, with completely open access from anywhere in the world. It was a remarkable achievement for a planet with only one great ocean, most of which lies in the high seas beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. This completely changed the rules of the game: scientific networks expanded across the globe, deep-sea exploration—which once covered less than 5%—has now comfortably reached 20%, and dozens of new species are discovered on every expedition. Each of these institutions manages, with great effort, to carry out around five expeditions per year. Despite this, participation remains fully open to collaboration, and when countries coincide with the focal area of exploration, calls are launched for local scientists and explorers to take the lead. Colombia, for example, won one of these calls, but its maritime authority denied entry to the expedition—even though it would have come at zero cost to the country (see details: https://www.elespectador.com/ambiente/blog-el-rio/la-expedicion-al-oceano-profundo-que-colombia-desaprovecho-habra-una-segunda-oportunidad/).

The point is not to dwell indefinitely on this experience, but rather to ensure it never happens again. The reasons why we must embrace international cooperation to explore the deep sea are made evident by the expeditions launched from South America since early last year. At the end of last year, the Nazca Ridge was explored, yielding new scientific discoveries that surpassed years of previous deep-sea expeditions. More recently, in the submarine canyon off Mar del Plata, equally surprising findings marked an unprecedented milestone for Latin America.

NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2022 ROV and Mapping Shakedown

The expedition captivated a massive audience, with more than 17 million users tuning in throughout its duration. Social media was flooded with images of stunning deep-sea creatures, while memes of a charismatic, big-bottomed red starfish went viral around the world (“Patrick Star [the SpongeBob character] does exist”). Even in Colombia, opinion influencers and artists were posting several times a day about the expedition. The public was finally discovering what lies in the ocean beyond the beaches. In a country like Colombia, where nearly half of its territory is ocean, we are long overdue in exploring it and sharing it with Colombians—so that the ocean becomes a true part of their worldview.