:00:16. > :00:23.In the deep ocean in lie some of the most mysterious features of the
:00:23. > :00:31.planet. In extreme heat and pressure bizarre forms of life
:00:31. > :00:38.somehow thrive. One discovery is about this rock with much of it far
:00:38. > :00:45.richer than anything on land. Anywhere up to two or $3 billion
:00:45. > :00:51.worth of copper is my estimate for that deposit alone. There are plans
:00:51. > :00:58.for Mining the ocean floor. It's a gold rush that comes with danger
:00:58. > :01:02.and causes lasting damage. We are on the brink of an entirely new
:01:02. > :01:06.relationship with the ocean to a combination of discovery and
:01:06. > :01:16.exploitation I have come to investigate an amazing new world
:01:16. > :01:35.
:01:35. > :01:39.out on the sea bed and a battle over its future. The heat of the
:01:39. > :01:43.Caribbean night. We are on the Cayman Islands are getting ready
:01:43. > :01:48.for a journey. Over the centuries these waters have witnessed
:01:48. > :01:56.everything from piracy to wars. Recently they have become the scene
:01:56. > :02:00.for banking and tourism. But beyond the gaze of most people, certainly
:02:00. > :02:06.in the towering cruise ships, there is another attraction. It's far
:02:06. > :02:12.offshore. There's a bit of swell because of the storm blowing
:02:12. > :02:17.through here in the last few days. As we push our way from Georgetown,
:02:17. > :02:23.the capital of the Cayman Islands, to the east we can see Jamaica and
:02:23. > :02:26.over to the west we see the coast of Mexico but we are headed for a
:02:26. > :02:35.run debut in the ocean with a British research ship for James
:02:35. > :02:40.Cook. This is that leading research vessel named after captain Cork the
:02:40. > :02:46.famous explorer who Matt to vast areas of the Pacific Ocean. He
:02:46. > :02:52.could never have imagined what lay below the surface. We have come to
:02:52. > :02:58.spend a few days on board. The plaster behind might here is
:02:58. > :03:05.supposed to stop seasickness which releases a drug which is supposed
:03:05. > :03:15.to help, we will see. We pull up alongside. It's taking years to
:03:15. > :03:21.
:03:21. > :03:31.arrange this. We need to transfers via this ladder. The safest way to
:03:31. > :03:31.
:03:31. > :03:36.shift Gier is to sling it in a net and hoist it on board. The James
:03:36. > :03:41.Cook is a floating laboratory. It has all the latest devices for the
:03:41. > :03:47.latest ocean research. Dozens of scientists like Rachel, a chemist,
:03:47. > :03:51.make it their home for weeks on end. Their work around the clock
:03:51. > :04:01.investigating different aspects of the marine world. There is real
:04:01. > :04:02.
:04:02. > :04:10.excitement about what is to come. This is the centrepiece of the
:04:10. > :04:16.research effort. Engineers are getting it ready. It's called Isis,
:04:16. > :04:22.a remotely operated vehicle, a robot submarine. It looks ungainly
:04:22. > :04:27.but this is the cutting edge of underwater exploration. A
:04:27. > :04:32.mechanical arm will work 5,000 metres below, essential for
:04:33. > :04:38.gathering samples. The technology involved is at the outer limits of
:04:38. > :04:42.deep-sea Engineering. This is the view you get from a little camera
:04:42. > :04:46.fixed to the end of a mechanical arm giving you an insight into the
:04:46. > :04:56.extraordinary view the machine can gather not just up here but down in
:04:56. > :04:57.
:04:57. > :05:04.the abyss as well. With infinite care this hi-tech emissary to the
:05:04. > :05:11.deep is inched towards the water. Ahead of it is a descent for three
:05:11. > :05:16.straight miles to the ocean floor. A mission of genuine discovery. The
:05:16. > :05:23.submarine is tethered to the ship via cables. As adventures down it
:05:23. > :05:27.will be managed all the way by a team on board. Re- D when you are.
:05:27. > :05:32.The control room looks like something from NASA. What's
:05:32. > :05:38.happening here is not that different from a space mission.
:05:38. > :05:44.David age is flying for submarine into the abyss. It's a very serene
:05:44. > :05:51.and smooth feel. The joystick controls the thrusters. We have
:05:51. > :05:56.very fine control over them. It's like gliding around as if you are
:05:56. > :06:01.snorkelling. If Sounds like you Lovett? Our I do, it's very
:06:01. > :06:05.interesting. It's an opportunity to see things people have never seen
:06:05. > :06:09.before, you never know what you're going to come across on the screens.
:06:09. > :06:18.The scientists guide us to where they want to go and what they want
:06:18. > :06:23.to look at. We try to take them on a taxi ride through the bend fields.
:06:23. > :06:29.We get instructions to where they want to sample and what they wanted
:06:29. > :06:34.to sample. The chief scientist is John, each dive brings fresh
:06:34. > :06:41.insights to the world below. For remotely operated vehicle has to
:06:41. > :06:46.work. Describe what's going on now. The vehicle is on its way down to
:06:46. > :06:51.the sea bed for this detailed look at the vents. Are you excited,
:06:51. > :06:56.nervous, what are you feeling? Anticipation, excitement, we are
:06:56. > :07:01.going to the deepest known dense 5,000 metres deep, 3.1 miles. We
:07:01. > :07:04.are about halfway down and has another 1.5 hours to go up to get
:07:04. > :07:09.to the sea floor and it's the first time we will see these dense close-
:07:09. > :07:15.up. We have mapped them up, we have a mac to navigate by but we will
:07:15. > :07:21.look at them in detail and I can't wait to get down there. The Saab
:07:21. > :07:28.makes it to the sea floor. We are watching scenes relayed live back
:07:28. > :07:33.to the ship. Then we see what the expedition has come for. The
:07:33. > :07:40.mesmerising almost industrial site of what are called hydrothermal
:07:40. > :07:50.vents. These strange dark Jamie's rise from the ocean floor. They
:07:50. > :08:00.
:08:00. > :08:07.belched out incredibly hot water, more than 400 degrees Celsius.
:08:07. > :08:11.air we go. Excellent! There's been plenty of expeditions but never
:08:11. > :08:14.with such capable cameras and these particular bent have never been
:08:14. > :08:24.seen before, they have a deeper so far discovered anywhere in the
:08:24. > :08:25.
:08:25. > :08:30.world. What is the reaction? Is it surprise, what is your reaction
:08:30. > :08:36.amongst all of you when you come across these incredible and he
:08:36. > :08:40.recites of the twisted Jimmy's. Surprised. It's humbling because
:08:40. > :08:46.its twitchy how little we know and how much more we have to find out
:08:46. > :08:51.and you are little humble, in all, and you can revel in the beauty of
:08:51. > :08:55.it. For a few minutes it's not about science. It's about the
:08:55. > :09:02.wonder of this part of Allah Planet, something that's been hidden for so
:09:02. > :09:09.long. Hydro, vents are found what ever fault lines divide the ocean
:09:09. > :09:15.floor. It includes the deep canyon where we are now. These weird
:09:15. > :09:21.Features rise from the seabed like miniature volcanoes. This is how
:09:21. > :09:25.they work. Cold sea water is forced under massive pressure into the sea
:09:25. > :09:33.bed itself. It's then heated by the magma in the rock below and blasted
:09:33. > :09:40.out. It creates a unique habitat for extraordinary creatures.
:09:40. > :09:45.Everyone on board is gripped by it alive shots from three miles deep.
:09:45. > :09:50.Biologist, geologist, chemists. Scientific Korea's are made with
:09:50. > :09:54.discoveries like these. Each new insight has the researchers
:09:54. > :10:03.puzzling and debating. I think it's probably a sea anemone. You get
:10:03. > :10:08.them down there. Many of them chimneys are turned almost white by
:10:08. > :10:13.shrimp, tiny creatures crowding and jostling. In water so deep they
:10:13. > :10:18.never see the sunlight and they have lost their colour. They feed
:10:18. > :10:23.off the bacteria which grows in the mix of chemicals and heat. The
:10:24. > :10:32.shrimp has another highly unusual feature in the total darkness. They
:10:32. > :10:38.are blind. Nearby, migrate masses of tube worms who will also feed
:10:38. > :10:48.off bacteria. Life beside the chimneys has evolved in ways that
:10:48. > :10:50.
:10:50. > :10:53.keeps surprising if the scientists. After a mission of 24 hours, the
:10:53. > :10:58.robot submarine is bought back to the surface. The researchers cannot
:10:58. > :11:02.wait to get their hands on the samples. Were it waited long enough,
:11:02. > :11:06.it's taken three years for this expedition. We've been working for
:11:06. > :11:12.18 hours and three hours to get down and three hours to get back so
:11:12. > :11:20.a few more minutes, we can hang on. If two scientists have to be turned
:11:20. > :11:24.back. The engineers need to check that everything is safe. Then, a
:11:24. > :11:34.frantic rush. The quicker the samples are retrieved the less they
:11:34. > :11:36.
:11:36. > :11:43.will be damaged in this tropical heat. This is for about 4960 metres.
:11:43. > :11:49.It's a hydrothermal chimney where these shrimp leave. There's many
:11:49. > :11:55.shrimper down there. Creatures have been plucked from an environment of
:11:55. > :11:58.incredible pressure. Right now, speed is everything. This is the
:11:58. > :12:02.key moment. Everyone has their head down checking and sorting
:12:02. > :12:09.everything that's been hauled back from the deep. To ensure that we
:12:09. > :12:13.get all of the life from the sample, even microscopic samples, we take
:12:13. > :12:19.out any tiny animals in a sieve and we look under the microscope for
:12:19. > :12:28.the next few hours looking for through this. We've are sorting
:12:28. > :12:33.them into different sections for organic chemistry or for molecular
:12:33. > :12:37.rebate relationships and the other thing for biology. We divide them
:12:37. > :12:42.into 10 each. We do it quickly because obviously they are out of
:12:42. > :12:47.their natural environment so we will get this done, forgive me as I
:12:47. > :12:52.work. A motivation for all of them his discovery. This is a rare
:12:52. > :12:57.chance to find totally new species living in conditions that are
:12:57. > :13:02.utterly unfamiliar. He it's the excitement of not knowing what you
:13:02. > :13:07.will find, seeing things that others have not seen before. Even
:13:07. > :13:13.if I just kept coming back here time after time there is enough to
:13:13. > :13:16.keep my interest going because it's just stunning visually and
:13:16. > :13:21.scientifically and has a lot more that we can still learn from these
:13:22. > :13:28.sites, they are so unique. Each expedition as this new
:13:28. > :13:33.understanding. He builds up 3D maps of the sea bed. He is providing
:13:33. > :13:37.clues as to how it was formed and where more Chinese may be found.
:13:37. > :13:42.This is the first time I've got down to this amount of detail. It's
:13:42. > :13:50.rather exciting that we can do this. As a massive fall climate in the
:13:50. > :13:56.geology here. It's about 80 metres wide here. That cliff face is 80
:13:56. > :14:03.metres wide? Yes, it's a massive cliff, a big geological fault and
:14:03. > :14:13.that possibly has a large story to tell in the creation of these
:14:13. > :14:18.
:14:18. > :14:23.The submarine will be sent on mortarboard riots -- diets. No-one
:14:23. > :14:27.can be sure how many trips it could handle. For the geologist on board,
:14:27. > :14:34.this is a priceless opportunity to investigate exactly what the events
:14:34. > :14:44.are made of it. Controlled from the surface, the mechanical arm reaches
:14:44. > :14:45.
:14:45. > :14:50.out. The aim, to collect a event without damaging it. It is
:14:50. > :15:00.extremely delicate work and remember this is being managed at a
:15:00. > :15:00.
:15:00. > :15:04.distance of three miles. The controller has to extract the piece
:15:04. > :15:14.of chimney and then very carefully manoeuvred it into a collection
:15:14. > :15:19.
:15:19. > :15:23.basket. Mission accomplished. This is one of the rocks the robot Sabu
:15:24. > :15:30.has just brought back from the ocean floor. It is part of one of
:15:30. > :15:34.on the video. This is where the hot water would have blasted out. I am
:15:34. > :15:40.wearing gloves because it turns out that hydrothermal vents are rich in
:15:40. > :15:47.minerals and metals, including cadmium and mercury. Most
:15:47. > :15:50.significant, have a look at this, just inside, these gold flecks are
:15:50. > :16:00.copper. The fact that these are so rich in valuable metals has
:16:00. > :16:01.
:16:01. > :16:09.attracted a lot of attention. In the lab, the rocks lie glinting.
:16:09. > :16:13.They contain far more mettle than any rocks on land. That is why
:16:13. > :16:16.mining companies are looking at operations in the oceans. The
:16:16. > :16:22.geologists here have been calculating how much metal is in
:16:22. > :16:28.this part of the sea bed and what it could be worth. If we were to
:16:28. > :16:32.assume that was all a deposit, and there is this is it -- no reason to
:16:32. > :16:39.suspect it is not, it would give us a mass of men all deposit of around
:16:39. > :16:44.4 million tonnes. -- mineral deposits. We are talking billions
:16:44. > :16:48.of dollars worth of copper. If it were on land, it would be a very
:16:48. > :16:54.valuable deposits. Because it is underneath five kilometres of water,
:16:54. > :16:58.it makes it virtually inaccessible. Trying to access these as mining
:16:58. > :17:01.deposits would be a little bit akin to mining asteroids. We can bring
:17:01. > :17:07.up samples, but to bring up economically viable amounts of
:17:07. > :17:11.mineral would be very different. No-one is suggesting mining this
:17:11. > :17:16.area are. This exhibition -- expedition is about science, not
:17:16. > :17:25.prospecting. The rich deposits on many parts of the ocean floor of
:17:25. > :17:30.are definitely targets for exploitation and pretty soon. This
:17:30. > :17:36.is the vision of a Canadian mining company, Nautilus Minerals. It
:17:36. > :17:41.plans to dig up the sea bed of Papua New Guinea. Huge machines
:17:41. > :17:46.would break up the ocean for, pulverise the rock and pipe up the
:17:46. > :17:54.fragments. The operation was due to start this year. It is on hold
:17:54. > :18:01.because of a legal dispute. The company is keen to start. This is
:18:01. > :18:06.where the Nautilus animation becomes reality. Its first
:18:06. > :18:10.underwater mining machines are under construction in Newcastle in
:18:10. > :18:14.the north-east of England. When you see people beside them, you get a
:18:14. > :18:19.sense of their immense scale. The company argues that gouging out the
:18:19. > :18:23.sea bed would be a list -- less destructive than mining on land.
:18:23. > :18:28.The deposit sit above the sea floor so we do not need to dig through
:18:28. > :18:32.mountains to get to them. That means the high-grade with not
:18:32. > :18:36.needing to remove material means we have the potential to offer the
:18:36. > :18:43.world a mineral solution which has the potential to have a lot last
:18:43. > :18:47.place. -- lot less waste. Nothing could replace this machine chewing
:18:47. > :18:51.up the sea bed, or would it? There are a number of strategies that
:18:51. > :18:55.have been delivered -- developed to make sure that any impact are
:18:55. > :18:59.minimised or mitigated against where possible. One of the
:18:59. > :19:03.strategies involves moving animals out of the path of mining and
:19:03. > :19:11.putting them in places where mining has already occurred. In addition
:19:11. > :19:15.we have committed to creating artificial substrates. Studies at
:19:15. > :19:21.the side have shown we expect the system to recover within a few
:19:21. > :19:26.years, which is very quick. Nautilus believes it can mind the
:19:26. > :19:31.sea bed and help wife return afterwards. Obviously there are
:19:31. > :19:38.plenty of people who question that. The idea of exploiting the ocean
:19:38. > :19:42.floor is gaining ground. The mining machines are being built on
:19:42. > :19:46.Tyneside, once a key centre for British sit -- British shipbuilding.
:19:46. > :19:53.It is valuable work. Deep-sea mining could be big business and
:19:53. > :19:57.the British Government is among many promoting it. One British plan
:19:57. > :20:01.even got a personal Porsche from the Prime Minister. The British arm
:20:01. > :20:08.of Lockheed Martin, the American defence giant, what's to vacuum
:20:08. > :20:14.pieces of rock called modules. Unlike hydrothermal vents, nodules
:20:14. > :20:22.lie on vast areas of the ocean for and a race is on to secure work the
:20:22. > :20:27.best access to them. The UN through its International seabed Authority
:20:27. > :20:34.sells licences for exploration for nodules and hydrothermal vents. But
:20:34. > :20:39.doesn't so far, the majority in the Pacific. -- a dozen. China, Russia,
:20:39. > :20:44.South Korea, France and Belgium are among the countries to buy them. We
:20:44. > :20:46.are on the brink of seeing if mining will actually happen.
:20:46. > :20:51.think the biggest uncertainties for seabed mining are firstly that
:20:51. > :20:55.nobody has yet done this at a commercial scale. People have
:20:55. > :21:00.tested technology but that is very different from operating at a full
:21:00. > :21:04.commercial scale. Secondly, we do not fully understand the
:21:04. > :21:10.consequences for the marine environment of operating a mind
:21:10. > :21:15.over a prolonged period of in excess of ten years. So no-one can
:21:16. > :21:20.be sure of the impact of mining because it hasn't yet started. The
:21:20. > :21:26.International seabed Authority is working on a set of rules designed
:21:26. > :21:32.to minimise the damage. What are you going to try and do in terms of
:21:32. > :21:37.protecting the environment? There will always be some impact from
:21:37. > :21:42.mining, whether it is on land or at the bottom of the sea. It is
:21:42. > :21:47.impossible to mind without creating some sort of environmental impact.
:21:47. > :21:53.What we need to do is to understand the scale of that impact. We need
:21:53. > :21:59.to understand the consequences, the time that environmental damage will
:21:59. > :22:07.take place and whether there is any knock-on impact on other parts of
:22:07. > :22:12.the ocean or on coastal states. Back on board the James Cook, there
:22:12. > :22:16.is a real debate about mining. The scientists argue among themselves
:22:16. > :22:24.about the rights and wrongs. Overshadowing everything, questions
:22:24. > :22:28.life and whether or mining is even feasible. This material is not luck
:22:28. > :22:33.oil or gas. It is extremely Abbott -- corrosive and abrasive. It will
:22:33. > :22:38.destroy pumps and pipes. It will be difficult to lift the material to
:22:38. > :22:44.the surface. Then we mustn't lose sight of the fact that these
:22:44. > :22:48.deposits are oases of exotic wife. We need to be careful that in their
:22:48. > :22:50.attempt to exploit what might be a mineral resource we don't treble a
:22:50. > :22:56.more valuable resource, the biological one which we know so
:22:56. > :23:00.little about. The biological cost is that the animals living there
:23:00. > :23:05.are endemic. That is their home. They have adapted over many
:23:05. > :23:09.millions of live -- millions of years to live there. If you wipe
:23:09. > :23:14.out that area by mining, those animals have to do one or two
:23:14. > :23:19.things - they disperse and they colonised another hydra virtual --
:23:19. > :23:24.hydrothermal vent elsewhere or they die. What happens when they die is
:23:24. > :23:28.it will become biologically extinct. At the heart of this argument is a
:23:28. > :23:32.fundamental question about our attitude to the oceans. Whether we
:23:32. > :23:38.think they deserve special protection or whether they Richard
:23:38. > :23:45.should be exploited, like any other part of the planet. If society
:23:45. > :23:48.wants these metals, maintains these demand, then we need to Privy -- we
:23:48. > :23:55.need to be ?I ? need to be these metals from wherever we find
:23:55. > :24:02.them. I am not sure we can simply Corral areas of the Earth Resources
:24:02. > :24:06.off and say they are not accessible. I don't think we particularly own
:24:06. > :24:10.the deep ocean. Instead we share responsibility for its stewardship.
:24:10. > :24:16.The more people can see what is down there and sharing that
:24:16. > :24:20.discovery with us, then we can all start thinking deep for the future.
:24:20. > :24:25.The scientist, Rachel Mills, the things that as consumers we all
:24:25. > :24:30.need to confront this question. It is Arab demands that have fuelled
:24:30. > :24:33.the search for new researchers in the first place. -- is our demands.
:24:33. > :24:37.She has carried out research on waterless and believes no-one
:24:37. > :24:46.should avoid thinking about this. Everything we have from the watches
:24:46. > :24:55.the -- watches we wear, the clothes we wear, relies on Miller at --
:24:55. > :24:59.mineral resources the. We don't often ask where they come from. We
:24:59. > :25:04.need to have a bigger debate about it. About sustainable mining on the
:25:04. > :25:12.land or in the oceans. There are a lot of questions, but they are the
:25:12. > :25:19.same whether you are in the deep sea or on land. Our time on the
:25:19. > :25:23.James Cook leaves two impressions. First, that the moment of discovery
:25:23. > :25:27.created a real buzz on board. We are all thrilled by exploration.
:25:27. > :25:32.Second, but the more we know about the ocean, the more likely we are