Into the Deep Unknown

In the summer of 2017, a team of scientists led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ventured a thousand kilometers off the coast of Brazil to explore the seafloor around a little-known cluster of islets called St. Paul’s Rocks. One of those scientists, Diva Amon, a deep-sea biologist from the Natural History Museum of London, describes what it’s like to venture into a dark, unknown world 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the surface—and why this type of research is key to understanding and protecting our oceans.