The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth, yet we humans know little about it. Why is that? My upcoming book explores how the deep sea has become a realm of both fantasies—of exploitation and extraction—and wonder and mystery.
To understand how humans study the deep sea, I visited the Minderoo Deep-Sea Research centre in Perth, which has access to the world’s deepest-diving research submersible. I also explored the archives of the Natural History Museum in London, where many of the deepest specimens collected by the Challenger expedition are preserved. Finally, I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the Pacific West Coast to understand how humans try to model deep sea habitats and how these efforts fall short in capturing this world beyond our senses.
Read an interview about the project here.
If you want to see a chrocheted anglerfish check out the Environmental History craftivist quilt from the conference in Oulu Finland here.