ON 21 DECEMBER 1872, the converted warship HMS Challenger embarked from Portsmouth, England, on the first ever global scientific survey of the seas. Researchers from the Royal Society of London borrowed the vessel from the Royal Navy for a four-year, 130,000-kilometre voyage, which brought into focus the truly colossal scale of the global ocean and revealed vivid details of its living inhabitants.
Now, 150 years later, the Challenger expedition remains a milestone in oceanography. 快猫短视频s still use its enormous collections of marine organisms, including to study how the ocean is changing. Of course, much has altered since the Challenger set sail, not least the way science is done. Mapping the seabed used to require a lot of piano wire lowered over the side of boats to measure the depths, but is now done using beams of sound. Autonomous robots steer through the seas gathering data, while analysis of traces of DNA in water tell us which species are present. However, some old ideas from the Challenger era still linger and they urgently need to be left behind.
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Back then, science wasn鈥檛 driven simply by curiosity about the world and how it works, but by an imperialistic desire to find and secure access to resources. Exploration went hand in hand with exploitation 鈥� and this often continues today.
It was Challenger scientists who first discovered metal-rich rocky nodules scattered across the abyssal sea floor. A this September marking the 150th anniversary of the expedition was sponsored by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a body established by the UN, with a keynote speech delivered by the organisation鈥檚 secretary-general, Michael Lodge. At around the same time, the ISA gave the go-ahead for the first tests of a deep-sea mining operation that aims to exploit those same nodule fields.
The ISA is charged with facilitating deep-sea mining while ensuring the industry doesn鈥檛 seriously harm marine life, a dual mandate that to be conflicted and unworkable. The organisation has been criticised for accelerating mining plans amid concerns for the irreversible environmental impacts it could cause, as pressure from scientists, conservationists, governments and corporations for a .
We know far more now than we did 150 years ago about the critical role the ocean plays as a support system for all life on Earth. It regulates the climate, generates oxygen, absorbs carbon and contains masses of biodiversity. Meanwhile, industries are seeking to extract more than ever from the ocean, from seabed minerals to the fish that inhabit deep waters. Working closely with scientists not only shows industrialists what is there to exploit, and where, but it can also help legitimise their activities.
With the ocean facing so many threats, this is a critical time for marine science to move beyond the old narrative of exploitation and extractivism. In its place, we need a new model for seeking to better understand the ocean, to properly protect it and to find equitable, ethical and truly sustainable ways to use the vast blue parts of our planet.
An inspiring vision for what future ocean research could look like comes from the programme. This global scientific cooperative isn鈥檛 a single expedition, but combines the efforts of scientists worldwide on numerous research trips over the current decade. A major aim is to go to places scientists haven鈥檛 been before, or not since the original Challenger expedition, and to use that knowledge to better appreciate how all of society benefits from the ocean.
Earth has one ocean, and we all depend on it 鈥� not just those who will gain the most commercially.
Helen Scales is a marine biologist and聽author of The Brilliant Abyss
