The trip to “The Trench” will include the deployment of seven unmanned vehicles which will shoot video, collect water and soil samples, measure sound and collect organisms and micro-organisms, bringing to light potentially new species and knowledge from 36,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
The team is comprised of Chris Welsh, real estate investor/adventurer; Dr. Laurie Raymundo, director of the University of Guam Marine Lab; Dr. Doug Bartlett, oceanographer/deep water microbiologist, and Kevin Hardy, senior development engineer, both from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Roger Chastain, deep sea microbiologist, also from Scripps; Eric Berkenpas, lead engineer, Graham Wilhelm, mechanical engineer, and Matt Maxwell, videographer, all from National Geographic; and David Barclay, a PhD student in underwater acoustics from Scripps.
Along with the rising sun, the team assembled at the Hagåtña Boat Basin and boarded the 65-foot mono-hulled “Super Emerald,” captained by Paul Cruz with both boat and crew out of Saipan.
Getting an early start, the Nat Geo team’s Berkenpas, Wilhelm and Maxwell arrived at the slip early, affording them the time for shooting “B” roll footage and testing out their “heli-cam,” a remote-controlled, 8-propeller, helicopter-like vehicle outfitted with a high-end Sony Handycam with long range capabilities and an eight-minute flight battery time.
Shark tales
The night before, following a presentation by the Scripps Institute’s Kevin Hardy, held at the University of Guam Marine Lab, Nat Geo’s Berkenpas and Wilhelm reported that they recently worked on an underwater project titled “Migrations,” with the former adding that his team “built a camera that was then attached to a great white shark to get the [point of view] shot.”
With a modest smile and a captivated room full of peers and academics, he went on to say: “Most of what we did that made it into that production was footage of one of our colleagues, an engineer who fell into the water onto a shark while we were deploying the camera.”
Asked about the current project which brings National Geographic to “The Trench,” Berkenpas explained: “This is going to be part of a Major Blue Chip production that will probably come out in a couple of years if we find anything more cool than mud and shrimp.”
While addressing and craning his head toward the Scripps Institute’s Barclay, the engineer, with a tone mixed with jocularity and seriousness, said, “We are hopeful that your deep sound device doesn’t record an implosion, that’s what we’re mostly worried about.”
In his presentation, Scripp’s Kevin Hardy spent several minutes chronicling the history of deep-sea adventure, explaining: “We have incorporated some of the techniques used on the Trieste (an expedition to the Marianas Trench which left out of Apra Harbor in January 1960) such as using metal pellets to achieve proper ballast. We were able to get some of those original metal pellets and we are taking them with us and they’ll be diving in our vehicles. For me, that’s really an exciting thing when we connect old and new and stand on the shoulders of these giants.”
Branson
Chris Welsh, the famed stateside real estate investor and adventure seeker, joined the expedition as an opportunity for “advanced recon for his upcoming mission.”
Teamed with Virgin Atlantic’s billionaire Richard Branson in their collaborative effort called Five Deep, a manifest to successfully navigate to the bottom of the world’s five deepest oceanic trenches, Welsh within the upcoming months will attempt to pilot his craft, the Virgin Oceanic Submarine, on a seven-hour round trip journey to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
When asked why he’s doing this, Welsh said, “If you gave me the chance to do the space shuttle I’d do that too, but this is more unique than that.”
