Exploring life in the deep-ocean midwater is a long-standing challenge for deep-sea research. The region between the surface and sea-floor, a space that constitutes the largest most biodiverse habitat on Earth, remains poorly understood due to the limitations of sampling its gelatinous, fragile inhabitants. Robots in the Deep documents recent innovations that allow midwater animals to be sampled in-situ, non-intrusively, with greater efficiency than ever. ROVs and new sampling systems are opening a window onto midwaters which, during these times of uncertainty surrounding deep-sea exploitation and its impacts, is crucial to how we approach stewardship in our planet's last frontier. Created in collaboration with Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Written, narrated and edited by Leo Richards.
Produced by Logan Mock-Bunting.
Featuring interviews with:
Brennan Philips (University of Rhode Island)
Kakani Katija (MBARI)
Peter Girguis (Harvard University)
Schmidt Ocean Institute: / schmidtocean
This film is being entered into the Jackson Wild film festival as a student entry.
00:00 - Introduction
01:25 - Meet ROV SuBastian
02:54 - Exploring the Auka Vent Field
04:55 - Sampling the Deep Midwaters
08:01 - Remote Imaging Systems
09:33 - In-Situ Sampling
10:19 - Digital Holotypes
11:52 - Pushing the Envelope
12:25 - Outro
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