Why we need an underwater space race

As midnight neared, we bobbed around in the black Caribbean Sea aboard a rubber dinghy. There were five of us out there, peering down into the undulating, forever darkness. We scoured the water for signs of a telltale light, coming from below.

A yellow submarine — the same one that seven years previous captured the first deep sea footage of a giant squid — was expected to return to the surface after spending five hours in the ocean depths off of Eluethera, a snake-shaped island in The Bahamas.

“There!” yelled a crewmember, pointing 50 feet off the dinghy. And there the water began to glow, an emerald radiance amid the black sea. The shine grew brighter and brighter until the submersible’s bubble-like capsule, holding three humans, popped out of the water. On cue, a crewmember balanced on the edge of the dinghy, lunged into the water and swam over to the exploration craft, preparing to hook it to a looming 184-foot vessel called the Alucia, which would soon hoist the yellow submarine from the sea, and end the night’s mission. Read more…

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