We also picked up a pair of crabs mating—coitus interuptus. Male crabs can hold onto females in one spot on the ocean floor for two weeks while waiting for her to molt. They like their women soft, apparently.
Before I knew it, we were out of power and the dive was over. We dropped two sets of weights, 108 pounds (49 kilograms) each, onto the seafloor, and up we went. It took about 30 minutes from 1,500 feet, which is where we ended up.
It's strange, I'd already seen hours of this terrain from videos of other Alvin dives this week, but even though they were video, they were really just snapshots. Being there instantly brought all of the elements together.
What struck me most, I think, was the randomness of it all—sea stars in one place at one depth, crabs at another, and corals at yet another. Of course I realize it's not random at all. But to an alien like me, I just couldn't comprehend the arrangement. I couldn't help but think that if the sub happened to land just 100 feet (30 meters) to the west or east, I'd be seeing something just as completely wonderful but very different.
I guess that's where the frustration comes in. We hear all the time how the earth is 70 percent water, and that we've only explored 5 percent of it, but this experience just makes that so much more vivid to me—and daunting.
If there was ever a motivator for ocean exploration, this is it.
It's a whole other world down there.
Look for television coverage of Chad's dive on an upcoming episode of National Geographic Today.
National Geographic Today, at 7 pm. ET/PT in the United States, is a daily news journal available only on the National Geographic Channel. Click here to learn more about it. Go>>
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