A Search for the Unsearchable

Laurent Ballesta’s Gombessa Project uncovers the deepest secrets of our oceans.

- Celine Yap

It all began with a mystery. First it was the legend of a coelacanth, a prehistoric creature long thought to have been extinct well over 70 million years ago. To find it, photograph it and then study it was all Laurent Ballesta wanted to do. And he did. More than once.

In 2010, he made history as the first person to release new underwater video footage and imagery of the coelacanth up close. It was a first even among divers, adding to the work of South African technical diver Peter Timm, who was the first to rediscover the species in 2000.

Travelling with his team to South Africa, where the locals refer to the fish as gombessa, Ballesta descended on an area of the Indian Ocean known as the Mozambique Channel. The expedition, funded by luxury watchmaker Blancpain, was the result of two years of scientific, logistical and human preparation.

The Long Way Down

To find the coelacanth, Ballesta had to reach depths of around 140m. By way of comparison, an average scuba diver seldom crosses the 40m mark. Using GPS and sonar devices, the crew located the Jesser Canyon caves and then jumped feet first into the blue, battling the full wrath of the currents.

“We had to jump in a distance away depending on the speed of the current. Sometimes as far as 300 metres. Using our compass and diving at the correct angle, we were able to reach the spot,” says Ballesta. “We did something like 70 dives and never once did we miss.”

For days, Ballesta and his team dived those waters. He did what was initially thought to have been impossible because of the excruciating depths for which every hour spent underwater equates to four more needed to decompress. And the numerous technical issues encountered along the way didn’t make things easy.