The deep sea is about to yield more of its secrets. The alliance, launched this week, brings together more than 30 international organisations from the fields of science, technology and business to try to learn more about Earth鈥檚 final frontier.
鈥淲e know more about the surface of Mars and the moon than we do about our own seabed,鈥� says principal scientist at the University of聽Oxford.
The alliance鈥檚 XL Catlin Deep Ocean Survey will kick off with dives in Bermuda this month, using both manned and autonomous submersibles.
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Rogers says such increasingly sophisticated craft are giving us unprecedented access to the deep sea. 鈥淲e see a great need to learn, and we now have the technology to do it.鈥�
Nekton鈥檚 ultimate aim is to diagnose the health of waters below 200 metres, to better inform policy decisions on protecting these habitats.
Read more: 鈥�Better world: End the pillaging of the high seas鈥� and 鈥�Deep sea special: The undiscovered oceans鈥�
This article will appear in print under the headline 鈥淒eeper exploration鈥�
