ALL HANDS ON DECK

“All these strange life forms were flashing their lights at each other. It was like a psychedelic pyrotechnic display,” remembers Rob McCallum, founding partner of EYOS Expeditions, as he talks to me via Zoom from his base in the US. He is telling me about some of the extraordinary sights he has seen while exploring the deep ocean with his clients.

“And the truth is, it’s science that really seems to motivate superyacht owners these days,” he continues. “There’s a new generation coming through who have often made their money fairly young but are not particularly materialistic. They like nice things but they are more interested in experiences and finding out about their world, how it functions and how it might be better looked after in the future.”

In 2019, during the Five Deeps Expedition, McCallum’s team picked up a rock from the bottom of the Mariana Trench, nearly 11 kilometres down. “The rock was taken back to the University of Hawaii where they examined it under a microscope, and inside the rock were threads of biological matter,” McCallum continues with amazement in his voice. “Life inside a rock at the very bottom of the world’s oceans. These are incredible discoveries.”

If we are to find solutions to the many problems facing the planet, maritime research may hold the key. The health of the oceans is critical to the health of the planet as a whole, and yet we don’t fully understand how they function. As of 2020, only a fifth of the earth’s ocean floor had been surveyed. Nonetheless, even though huge strides are being made, one of the greatest challenges for marine scientists is gaining access to the sea to carry out their work. While some grants and berths on ships are funded by national governments, one of the UK’s top marine scientists recently reported that his application success rate is just four