![]() Famously, Titanic director James Cameron made the first solo descent in 2012, spending more than two and a half hours in the trench. ![]() The first submersible to sink to the same depths was in 1960, only to re-emerge after 20 minutes at the bottom. I think the most under-appreciated aspect of both business and exploration is speed, and we’ve stunned many people in the oceanographic community by how quickly we’ve been able to build the system, and then use it to do something that no government has ever even tried to do, at a fraction of the cost. Only 18 people have ever made it to the Challenger Deep. “The knee-jerk reaction always seems to be no,” he says, “but in a way I’m very happy writing all the expenses myself, because it gives me a degree of control. I understand the inefficiencies that can come with international bureaucracies and state organisations."Īs an example, he explains how hard it was to obtain permits to dive in the five zones and to conduct marine research, even though it was at no cost to the organisations themselves. Shouldn’t it be governments and other global organisations that should be taking all this on, I ask, rather than one individual? “I do think they should be doing more,” he agrees, “but I’m realistic. In fact, it’s easy to forget that this is Vescovo’s pet project, his vision and his money. “It’s the most hostile point on earth, and I think for anyone that gets there, it’s a huge achievement.” “Having been part of both expeditions, I do think that Victor got to a slightly deeper spot – but I don’t think it’s at all important,” says McCallum. Cameron’s team believe the seabed there is flat, while Vescovo’s believes it undulates – allowing them to go deeper. Essentially, the Limiting Factor team think they reached a deeper point than Cameron did in 2012. ![]() “It’s part of a polite scientific agreement that me and Mr Cameron have,” explains Vescovo. They’ve taken hundreds of hours of valuable video footage, mapped more than 750,000 square kilometres of sea floor for the first time, and even kicked off a debate with Canadian film-maker and environmentalist James Cameron, one of the few others to have gone to the bottom of Challenger Deep. The team collected tens of thousands of specimens under the guidance of chief scientist Dr Alan Jamieson, and have so far identified more than 40 previously undiscovered species, with more sure to follow, as the bulk of the samples are still being analysed. ![]()
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