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For those onboard the Titan submersible, this world was never enough

- ANJULY MATHAI

The deep seas make up 95 per cent of all the space available for life. Yet, we know more about the surface of the moon than about the deep-sea plains. According to the nature documentary, Our Planet, until recently, we used to think the deep supported little life. But now, scientists believe there are 10 times more animals living here than previously thought. Like the dragon fish, which uses bioluminescence to attract prey to its terrifying teeth. Or the deep-sea angler fish, which uses an array of sensors to detect the movement of its victims. Or the chimaera, an ancient relative of the shark, which conserves energy by slowing its pace on the barren sea floor.

Two years ago, I was privileged to see one of the deep-sea wonders in a glass jar—a strange shrimp-like creature with spindly legs and a clear and translucent body. “It is a hadal amphipod,” British businessman and adventurer Hamish Harding told me over Zoom. “They are creatures you can find only at the bottom of the ocean.”

This was in July 2021, four months after he and undersea explorer Victor Vescovo had set two new Guinness World Records—for the longest distance traversed at the bottom of the ocean (4.6km) and the longest duration spent there (four hours and 15 minutes). Harding and Vescovo were among the handful of people who had travelled to the deepest part of the ocean—a small valley called the Challenger Deep at the southern side of the Mariana Trench, 11km under the surface of the ocean. He had collected the amphipod from there.