Read the article to check. b Why does so much of the ocean remain unexplored and unprotected? By Emily Petsko Scientists have successfully photographed a black hole, landed rovers on Mars, and sent spacecraft to the dark side of the moon. Yet, one of the last unknown frontiers is on our very own planet. More than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored. And because it’s difficult to protect what we don’t know, only about 7% of the world’s oceans are designated as marine protected areas (MPAs). A body of water that covers most of Earth’s surface remains one of the most vulnerable – and least understood – places in the universe. One of the biggest challenges of ocean exploration comes down to physics. Zero visibility, extremely cold temperatures, and high pressure characterize the ocean at great depths. The pressure of the air pushing down on your body at sea level is about 15 pounds per square inch (6.452cm2). If you went up into space, above the Earth’s atmosphere, the pressure would decrease to zero. However, if you went diving, those forces would start to stack up the further down you went. “On a dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is nearly 7 miles deep, you’re talking about over 1,000 times more pressure than at the surface,” Dr. Gene Carl Feldman, an oceanographer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said. “That’s the equivalent of the weight of 50 jumbo jets pressing on your body.” Yet things live down there. Of course, human-occupied submersibles aren’t the only way to explore and study the ocean. We can even learn some lessons from space. Satellite technologies have been used since the 1970s to capture detailed images of the ocean within minutes, while it would take a ship 10 years of continuous sampling to collect the same number of measurements, according to Feldman. Ocean exploration technologies have come a long way. Floats and drifters, devices that rely on ocean currents to carry them while they collect data, have been complemented in recent years by a huge fleet of underwater vehicles. This can include humanoccupied vehicles (HOVs), remotely-operated ones (ROVs), and autonomous and hybrid ones. Using a combination of technologies on expeditions has enabled humans to venture to previously unexplored waters. In 2012, the film director James Cameron set a record when he visited the Mariana Trench – the deepest part of the ocean – in a “vertical torpedo” sub. Seven years later a submersible even reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Explorer and businessman Victor Vescovo descended 35,853 feet (10,927 meters) into the Pacific Ocean, breaking the record for deepest dive ever. In Europe’s biodiversity hotspots, expeditions resulted in the first-ever record of a live brownsnout spookfish, as well as the documentation of two starfish species, one black coral, and one stony coral that were previously thought to only live in the Atlantic Ocean. The exploration of a seamount near Morocco led to the discovery of a deep-sea coral reef – the only one of its kind that is still growing in the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly 4 million square miles of ocean has been protected so far – and expeditions have played an important part in this development. Expeditions take photographs, video footage, scientific data and narratives that help to expand protected area. It is absolutely vital for the protection of the sea to collect more information. The results of exploring the sea would help to define new areas which should be protected, but many agencies around the world are reluctant to fund projects where there are too many unknowns. “Since we don’t know how all the pieces fit together, setting aside areas where we just say, ‘We’re leaving these alone’ or ‘We’re going to have minimal intervention’ is perhaps the safest thing to do until we know better,” Feldman said. “The idea of setting aside areas that are environmentally important and unique is probably a really smart move until we can get smarter about how we manage the ocean.” Read the article again and then talk in pairs. In the writer’s opinion: 1 What are the benefits and drawbacks of ocean exploration technologies? 2 What are the benefits of deep-sea exploration? Talk in pairs or small groups. Give your opinions. 1 Why is so much money spent on exploring the oceans? Is this justified? Why? / Why not? 2 If you could travel into the deep sea or into space, which would you choose? Why? 5 a b 10 Language skills Extras Explore 1 Discovery Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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