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Study Reveals That 99.999% Of The Deep-Sea Floor Has Yet To Be Seen By Humans; Researchers Call For More Investments In Accessible Technology To Expand Ocean Exploration.
Despite advancements in science and technology, the deep seas remain virtually untouched. It is estimated that humans have explored only 0.001% of these mysterious regions.
The rest remains invisible and unknown. The research was conducted by the Ocean Discovery League and published in the journal Science Advances.
What Is Known About The Depths
According to the survey, scientists have directly observed an area of the seafloor equivalent to the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
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This represents only a tiny fraction, which means that 99.999% of the regions below 200 meters in depth have yet to be seen by human eyes.
These regions are called the deep ocean. Although they are out of sight and seem irrelevant in everyday life, they are essential for the planet’s balance.
They help produce oxygen, regulate the climate, and host entire ecosystems.
An important milestone in this area came in 1977, when researchers discovered hydrothermal vents that sustain mineral-based life forms, even in complete darkness.
The Challenges of Exploration
Exploring these areas, however, is not straightforward.
The necessary technology is expensive, and the process is slow. The study’s lead, Katy Croff Bell, explained that exploring just 0.63 square kilometers of seafloor may require an investment of US$ 2 million to US$ 20 million.
And even with all that cost, only a small part can be seen at a time.
Bell mentioned that she began to wonder how much of the ocean had actually been seen.
To answer this, she and her team gathered data from about 44,000 deep-sea dives conducted by 120 countries since 1958. Even accounting for gaps in the records, the most generous estimate does not reach 0.01% of the total.
Another obstacle is the quality of old images. Almost 30% of visual observations are from before 1980, and many of them are in black and white, with low resolution. This significantly limits the scientific utility of these images.
Exploration Concentrated In A Few Countries
Another concerning fact is that most exploration in deep waters has been done in areas close to only a few countries.
More than 65% of the analyzed images came from regions located less than 200 nautical miles from the United States, New Zealand, and Japan.
Together with France and Germany, these countries account for 97% of all observations at great depths.
For Susan Poulton, a co-author of the study, this is a serious problem. According to her, trying to understand the global ocean with such concentrated data would be like studying the Amazon rainforest only through satellite images and DNA samples, without ever having seen the environment up close.
What Is Most Researched
The survey also identified a preference for the most “interesting” locations on the seafloor. Areas like canyons and ocean ridges receive more attention, while abyssal plains and seamounts tend to be ignored.
This unequal distribution could hinder the global understanding of marine biodiversity.
Less than two weeks before the publication of the study, then-President Donald Trump signed a decree aimed at accelerating the exploration of deep-sea resources, such as mining.
This movement intensifies the urgency to better understand what exists down there before political and economic decisions advance over poorly known areas.
An Appeal For Access And Technology
The team responsible for the study advocates for the development of new tools to facilitate research in deep waters.
The idea is to create accessible technologies that can also be used by low- and middle-income countries. This would increase the diversity of research and allow for a more complete view of the global ocean.
Marine biologist Jon Copley from the University of Southampton, who did not participate in the study, echoed this appeal.
According to him, if a billionaire philanthropist genuinely wanted to contribute to marine science, the ideal would not be to build a large research yacht.
He recommends investing in the development of low-cost platforms that can democratize access to ocean explorations.
In light of all this, researchers issue a clear warning: it is necessary to look more at the seafloor.
With so many environmental challenges and economic interests at stake, understanding better what exists in the depths could be essential for protecting the planet.
And while we can’t yet see even 0.001% of what is there, most of our world will remain shrouded in mystery.
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