MARSEILLE, July 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – After 28 days below the sea at a
crushing depth of 120 metres, a team of four researchers emerged into the
sunshine at the French Mediterranean port of Marseille on Sunday.
The team, led by marine naturalist and underwater photographer Laurent
Ballesta, celebrated with family and friends Sunday evening after a three-day
period spent in a decompression chamber.
This was not quite Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” and the
canary-yellow capsule in which they made their descent was not quite a
submarine.
But the diving bell that was their home for four weeks allowed them to
spend up to eight hours a day at 120 metres (395 feet) below the sea without
having to worry about getting the bends when they resurfaced.
Ballesta described the marine wildlife and the “rock cathedrals of the
underwater cliffs” that they had witnessed, as he and his colleagues
celebrated the end of the expedition with champagne.
And reunited with his wife and two-month-old daughter, he admitted, tears
in his eyes: “I underestimated the return to land. It’s more moving than
expected.”
Ballesta has brought back film footage and thousands of images taken
during his time in that inhospitable region: the weight of the water at that
depth is 13 times that on the surface.
– ‘Exploring another world’ –
“We all live on the same planet, but there are several worlds, and we have
had the honour of exploring another world,” said Ballesta.
“At almost every dive, we were able to film or photograph a species that
had never been observed living in its environment.”
The other members of the team were marine biologist Antonin Guilbert,
diving instructor and lighting specialist Thibault Rauby, and diver and
cameraman Yannick Gentil.
Every day, the steel capsule, which measures one square metre, was lowered
from a barge into the gloom of the “twilight” or mesophotic zone, where only
one percent of the sun’s rays penetrate.
After each deep-sea dive, the divers returned to the chamber, in which the
pressure was set at 13 times the pressure of the atmosphere.
When they were brought back to the surface at the end of every day, their
capsule was connected to two other chambers — one acting as a bathroom and
the other as a kitchen with a small table and an airlock through which to
receive food.
The research station was towed by barge along the coast between Marseille
and Monaco over the course of the month, with their three-day stint at the
end the only time they entered a decompression chamber.
During their four weeks under water, the team also carried out experiments
commissioned by researchers and laboratories and universities.
But the combination of the cold and the pressure made working so deep
difficult and dangerous, said Ballesta. He and colleague Thibault Ribault
were still suffering from frostbite on their fingers Sunday.
The Planet Mediterranean team stayed in regular contact with the outside
world with video blogs and televised news conferences.
They are planning an exhibition of the photos taken during their
expedition and also a documentary for release next year.