A new study reveals that just 0.001% of the Earth's deep ocean seafloor has been observed, highlighting vast unexplored regions crucial for understanding ecological dynamics. Published in Science Advances, the study, led by Katy Croff Bell, analyzed around 44,000 deep-sea dives since 1958. Even with possible statistical errors, exploration remains critically low, with limited countries equipped for this task. The deep ocean faces threats from climate change and resource mining, emphasizing the need for increased exploration, as many ecosystems could be undiscovered or poorly understood.
As we face accelerated threats to the deep ocean—from climate change to potential mining and resource exploitation—this limited exploration of such a vast region becomes a critical problem for both science and policy.
Even if their estimates were off by a factor of ten, it would still mean that less than one-hundredth of 1% of the deep ocean floor has ever been visually documented.
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