Page 28 - aruba-today-20190413

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 13 april 2019
Off the Seychelles, a dive into a never-seen landscape

By DAVID KEYTON possibly the greatest sub-
Associated Press marine novel of all time,
ST. JOSEPH ISLAND, Sey- which opens with fears over
chelles (AP) — The sub- a mysterious sea monster
mersible dropped from sinking ships and harvesting
the ocean’s surface faster the lives of sailors.
than I had expected. With Thirty years after reading
a loud “psssssss” the air the novel as a child, I’m sit-
escaped from the ballast ting in a tiny glass bubble
tanks and the small craft observing the underwater
suddenly tilted forward. world like Captain Nemo
Within seconds, aqua- on board the novel’s sub-
naut Robert Carmichael marine, Nautilus. We are
and I were enveloped by foreigners to this realm, ob-
a vibrant shade of blue, jects of fascination for the
watching streaks of sunlight reef shark that approaches
pierce the water’s surface. us, as curious of us as we
Soon a large manta ray are of it.
appeared from the dark- Even in the 19th century,
ness below, gently gliding Verne feared the extinc-
toward our small craft be- tion of numerous species of
fore vanishing into the dis- marine life. The fears have
tance. been proven true. A WWF
The dive took place off a Associated Press reporter, David Keyton poses for a photograph inside a submersible at around report found that marine
coral atoll called St. Jo- 400 feet below the surface off the coast of the island of St. Joseph in the Seychelles, Monday April vertebrate populations
seph in the outer islands of 8, 2019. have declined by almost
Seychelles on a mission to Associated Press half since the 1970s.
explore the Indian Ocean. a constant of our dive. ford will comb through the towels. Fishing is no longer the sole
This body of water is poorly We moved across a sea- footage frame by frame, It was curiosity that drew cause. Man-made pollu-
studied and few scientists bed of rock and sand and noting each species en- Carmichael to the ocean. tion, global warming and
have ever ventured deep- scattered soft coral until countered. “I just wanted to know what the acidification of the
er than the maximum scu- a great darkness opened Suddenly a drop of cold was down here,” he said. oceans are new challeng-
ba depth of 100 feet. ahead. Carmichael low- water landed on my arm, “It’s stunning in so many es.
For more than a month ered us over the side of an triggering alarm. Water is ways.” As the oceans slowly soak
researchers from Nekton, underwater cliff. Our target best kept on the outside of This curiosity has attracted up heat from the atmo-
a British-led scientific re- depth was 400 feet. a submersible. Carmichael mankind for centuries. “The sphere, marine species
search charity, have been Oceans cover over two- quickly put me at ease: The human mind is naturally will be affected in differ-
using submersibles to dive thirds of the Earth’s surface difference in temperature drawn to grandiose notions ent ways. Some will adapt.
deep below the waves to but remain, for the most between the water around of supernatural beings, and Some will migrate to cooler
document the ocean’s part, unexplored. us and our submersible had the sea is the ideal medi- waters. Others will disap-
health. Their role in regulating our created a layer of conden- um for them,” wrote Jules pear, leaving a gap in eco-
We arrived at St. Joseph climate and the threats sation on the hatch. We Verne, author of “20,000 systems that have existed
Island in the early hours of they face are underesti- quickly soaked it up with Leagues Under the Sea,” for millennia. q
the morning, and this was mated by many people,
the first submersible dive so scientific missions are
at the new site. The sea crucial to take stock of the Traditional Hawaiian creation
bed suddenly appeared health of underwater eco-
scape no one had ever Able to operate down to chant used to name black hole
systems.
beneath our craft, a land-
seen before. 1,000 feet, these manned
I quickly scribbled down submersibles give scientists HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A lan- from the Kumulipo, an 18th nearly fell off my chair,”
in the mission report the a unique understanding of guage professor has given century Hawaiian creation said Jessica Dempsey,
depth and time at which changes in habitats as sun- a Hawaiian name — Pow- chant. Po is a profound deputy director of the
we sighted the bottom: light diminishes through the ehi — to the black hole dark source of unending James Clerk Maxwell Tele-
“165 feet, 1144 UTC.” Car- different layers of ocean. depicted in an image pro- creation, while wehi, hon- scope on Mauna Kea.
michael, a veteran of the We glided with the current duced in a landmark ex- ored with embellishments, Dempsey was among 200
sea, relayed the informa- as six cameras mounted periment. is one of the chant’s de- scientists who worked to
tion to the surface via an around the craft recorded University of Hawaii-Hilo scriptions of po, the news- capture an image of the
underwater telephone. Its its journey. In the months to Hawaiian Professor Larry paper reported. massive black hole in the
loud static noise would be come, researchers at Ox- Kimura named the cosmic “To have the privilege of M87 galaxy nearly 54 mil-
object, The Honolulu Star- giving a Hawaiian name to lion light-years from Earth.
Advertiser reported Thurs- the very first scientific con- Dempsey said Powehi is
day. The world’s first image firmation of a black hole is an excellent match for the
of a black hole revealed very meaningful to me and scientific explanation pro-
Wednesday was created my Hawaiian lineage that vided to Kimura.
using data from eight ra- comes from po,” Kimura “We described what we
dio telescopes around the said in a news release. had seen and that this
world. Powehi means “the A Hawaiian name was jus- black hole was illuminating
adorned fathomless dark tified because the project and brightening the dark-
creation” or “embellished included two Hawaii tele- ness around it, and that’s
dark source of unend- scopes, astronomers said. when he came up with the
ing creation” and comes “As soon as he said it, I name,” she said.q