deep sea

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'OceanGate Came Very, Very Close to Killing Me'

Sub expert who went on 2019 dive testifies at Coast Guard hearing

(Newser) - A submersible expert who testified at the Coast Guard's hearing on the catastrophic 2023 implosion of OceanGate's Titan submersible Tuesday recounted a harrowing 2019 experience he had aboard the first prototype of the sub. Karl Stanley, who owns a deep-sea diving expedition company, said he went down to...

Billionaire Plans to Prove It's Still Safe to Visit Titanic

Triton Submarines says OceanGate's imploded sub was the exception, not the rule

(Newser) - Nearly a year after the implosion of an OceanGate submersible en route to the Titanic's final resting place, a tragedy that killed all five people on board, a billionaire is planning another trip to the wreck. Larry Connor, whom the BBC refers to as an Ohio luxury real estate...

Jellyfish Suggest Deep-Sea Mining Could Be a Problem
Is Jellyfish Mucus a
Warning Sign of Sorts?
discoveries
Nov 22, 2023 11:23 AM CST

Is Jellyfish Mucus a Warning Sign of Sorts?

Experiment suggests deep-sea mining could potentially hurt the creatures

(Newser) - The rush to find the minerals needed to power our batteries and other electronics has mining companies looking to the seafloor—but at what potential cost to the marine life that lives above it? A study published Tuesday in Nature Communications aimed to answer that question using jellyfish, and as...

As They Got to the Seafloor, He 'Knew We Were Making History'

Explorer, retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, part of first crew to reach deepest part of ocean, is dead at 92

(Newser) - Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean—to the "snuff-colored ooze" at the bottom of the Pacific's Mariana Trench—has died. He was 92. Walsh died Nov....

'Dr. Deep Sea' Resurfaces After 'Extreme' Endeavor

Dr. Joseph Dituri spent a record-breaking 100 days underwater for science in a Florida lagoon

(Newser) - A university professor who spent 100 days living underwater at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers resurfaced Friday and raised his face to the sun for the first time since March 1. Dr. Joseph Dituri set a new record for the longest time living underwater without depressurization during his...

Possible 'Stepping Stone' Near Titanic Could Clear Up a Mystery

Rocky reef teeming with life may hold answers on how sponges, corals move across ocean floor

(Newser) - When submersible pilot and diver PH Nargeolet detected a sonar blip near the famous Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic more than a quarter century ago, he suspected it pointed to another shipwreck lying in wait. The thing just looked so big. But he was wrong. "It turned out,...

Scientists Looking for Wreck Find Life 6 Miles Below Sea
Scientists Looking
for Wreck Find Life
6 Miles Below Sea
in case you missed it
Jan 15, 2022 6:30 AM CST

Scientists Looking for Wreck Find Life 6 Miles Below Sea

Search for USS Johnston turns up deepest squid and jellyfish ever found

(Newser) - A dive last year to the depths of the Philippine Sea not only revealed a closer look at the deepest shipwreck ever , but signs of life few suspected to be hiding up to 6 miles beneath the waves. Days before researchers came across the presumed wreckage of the USS Johnston,...

In Australia's Deep: 'We Couldn't Believe What We Were Seeing'

Apolemia, a Silly String-like marine creature, could be longest animal ever seen

(Newser) - Scientists exploring underwater canyons in Western Australia say they've discovered up to 30 new marine species, including what's thought to be the longest animal ever seen. The Apolemia, belonging to the siphonophore family of marine organisms related to jellyfish, is made up of millions of tiny clones that...

Sharks Dined on a Swordfish. Then, 'Oh, My Gosh!'

Wreckfish seen swallowing shark in rare deep-sea footage

(Newser) - Researchers in pursuit of a World War II shipwreck have had to settle for observing a "once-in-a-lifetime event." The NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research team was using a remotely operated vehicle to explore 1,500 feet below the surface of the ocean off South Carolina when it spotted...

Decades-Old Question About This 'Purple Sock' Is Answered

Scientists still haven't seen the creatures feed

(Newser) - Since it was first discovered 60 years ago off the coast of Sweden, biologists have wondered exactly where the deep sea creature that resembles a crumpled purple sock belongs in the animal kingdom's family tree. Now the discovery of four new species in an entirely different ocean has effectively...

Scientists Unlock Key of Octopus's Blue Blood

New research could explain why they'll thrive in warming Antarctic waters

(Newser) - Unlike human royalty, a species of octopus that thrives in frigid Antarctic waters has actual blue blood, and scientists think they've figured out its advantage: The key is a blue-hued protein called hemocyanin—which Phys.org notes is comparable to hemoglobin in vertebrates, and which distributes oxygen throughout the...

Deepest Life on Earth Possibly Spotted

Bacteria may be able to survive 12 miles below Earth's surface

(Newser) - Life has a way of persisting in the unlikeliest of places—not just in the ocean's deepest spot, the Mariana Trench , but possibly even miles below the Earth's surface. Following up on a Yale grad student's initial fieldwork dating back to 1997, researchers from the university are...

Ancient Shipwreck Dates to Time When Rome Still Ruled

Divers spend hours descending 400-plus feet in search of artifacts

(Newser) - Scientists in Italy are teaming up with highly skilled divers from Florida to carefully sift through an ancient shipwreck dating back thousands of years—to the second Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage from 218BC to 201BC. It could be one of the oldest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, and is...

Mushroom-Shaped Critter in Deep Sea Vexes Biologists

Animal found in 1986, only now being scientifically described

(Newser) - From afar, the deep-sea animal species Dendrogramma enigmatica resembles a chanterelle mushroom. Upon closer inspection, though, the creatures seem to belong to the animal, not fungi, kingdom. And yet they cannot be classified under any existing animal group, perhaps necessitating an entire rewriting of the early tree of life, not...

Entirely New Order of Animal Discovered

Genetic analysis reveals one of planet's biggest sea anemones isn't one

(Newser) - Researchers creating a catalog-like "tree of life" for sea anemones discovered an entirely new kind of animal among them. Based on genetic analysis, a creature that lives near deep sea thermal vents in the Pacific and had been considered a giant sea anemone really isn't actually a sea...

Ocean Expedition Finds 1M New Species

And reveals that there's a lot of plastic threatening them

(Newser) - Researchers will today present the fruits of a two-year 70,000-mile journey: up to 1 million previously undocumented species found living in the world's deep oceans, reports The Independent . The research ship Tara collected thousands of samples from depths of up to 2,000 meters, yielding more than 1....

James Cameron Plans Deepest Ocean Dive Ever

'Avatar' director heading into Mariana Trench

(Newser) - James Cameron has already made the two highest-grossing movies ever, and now the Avatar and Titanic director wants to set another record ... under the sea. Later this month, Cameron plans to go almost seven miles down into the Pacific Ocean's Challenger Deep, the world's most inaccessible spot, in...

17 Stories