• Question: How many unexplored areas in all the oceans are there and what kind of species could they be home to?

    Asked by dlmutton to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Sad to say – but we know more about the moon than we do the oceans! About 95% of our oceans remain unexplored! Think about that! Every time someone goes out in the sea – new species are found – I can’t wait to see what keeps being discovered!

    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The deep oceans are without a doubt the most unknown places on the planet! They could be home to all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures that are hard to even imagine.

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Almost every time we collect a sample of sediment from the bottom of the sea, it has new species in it. Glo is right that we know more about the surface of the moon (well, you can get out and walk around on the moon). I’m particularly excited aout hydrothermal vents at the moment, as more and more keep being discovered, with amazing and weird new animals at every one.

    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      As all the others have said, we’re finding new species and new discoveries every time we make trips to the deepest areas of the Ocean. The deepest part of the Ocean is called Challenger Deep (cool name, eh?) in the Mariana Trench (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_Deep) At nearly 11km below the surface of the Ocean, there have only ever been 3 submarine expeditions to the bottom, only one of which was a manned trip. Hopefully, there is going to be another one soon by the director of the Avatar films of all people! He wants to experience life at the deepest depths for himself so that he can include it in the next Avatar films. Cool, no?

      Think about this for a second. The deepest parts of the Ocean are both very dark and very quiet. This never changes so anything and everything that lives down there is used to a silent existence. Imagine then, a submarine with bright lights and noisy engines trundling down to the bottom of the sea. You’d swim away if you saw or heard that coming, right? Well, there’s the problem. All the journeys that we make to the bottom of the ocean quite possibly scare off a lot of things that we’d like to see. So, there could be species down there that we’ll never see unless we get really lucky…

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      So as the others said there ar loads of unexplored areas and just to add to what Sean described the things that live so deep must be able to cope with a lot of pressure bearing in mind that the pressure goes up by 1 atm every 10 m roughly.

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