World Oceans Day 2022

I was very excited when I saw the open call to depict deep-sea exploration as the ocean has a core place within my work. There is this beautiful darkness and this mystery that the ocean possesses and I decided to create a piece that depicted just that. In my artwork, there is a deep-sea rover shining light on the ocean floor in the background. As you get closer to the foreground, you see some blue highlights as to represent cobalt crusts that are usually mined. In the foreground I included a few hypothermal vents with a few vent shrimp around them. While such a situation of all these elements in the same place might be a rare occurrence in real life, I think it was impossible to talk about deep sea exploration without mentioning these elements.
The How – which is depicted by the rover
The Why – which is depicted by the cobalt crusts
The Where – which is depicted by the hypothermal vents
The Who – which is depicted by the sealife, the vent shrimps.

After determining how to map out the ocean floor using sound equipment and sonar, scientists wanted to see the floor themselves. To achieve this feat, Dutchman Cornelis Drebbel built the first submarine in 1623. Since then, more and more improvements in the design have been made. This innovation of submarines allowed man to travel deeper into the ocean without being affected by cold temperatures and high pressures. To get up close and personal, however, man had to figure out how to swim underwater for long periods of time. For years’ humans swam underwater using long reeds as breathing tubes, the idea behind the modern day snorkel. The concept of feeding oxygen from the surface to the diver fuelerd the original designs for underwater diving.

Armed with new equipment and technology, humans were able to venture into the deep. It was previously believed that life could not exist in the deep sea due to a lack of light, cold temperatures, and high atmospheric pressures. However, the discovery of thermal vents in 1977 changed that theory. These vents, which are connected to the magma underneath the Earth’s crust, provide light, heat, and sulfur. Organisms such as the green sulfur bacteria thrive around these vents and actually feed off of the sulfur. These microorganisms act as the bottom of the food chain; larger organisms such as the giant tube worm feed on these bacteria and, therefore, must stay close to the vents.

Deep sea areas support unique ecosystems and are sources for energy and minerals. Exploring the oceans will help us fill gaps to better understand planetary-scale processes including tectonics, marine hazards, energy, mineral and biological resources and other large-scale Earth systems. Improved knowledge of the deep sea will help us sustainably manage and use ocean resources.

The deep sea is one of the biggest biomes on Earth and still the least known. Despite its size and enormous current conservation importance, little was discovered in detail before the mid-20th century. Only after the 1970s, with technological advances in deep sea exploration, it was possible to gradually unravel the mysteries of the deep sea. And discovering that the environment that used to cause fear and estrangement is actually the stage for the development of amazing specialized species, such as beautiful Strawberry Squid, Paramuricea sp. and Bubblegum Coral, as well as new ecological relationships such as starfish coiled in Solenosmilia and enduring ecosystems discovered in environments such as whale falls. Thus, this work portrays a little of the ecological diversity that exists in its deep and dark environment beyond the reach of humanity that comes to be known thanks to the determination of researchers, through the exploration of the deep sea.