NATURAL WORLD FACTS
NWF & Schmidt Ocean Institute present
WORLDS OF THE DEEP
This web project (Worlds of the Deep) is work-in-progress. Content may be incomplete, missing, or subject to change. I'd love your feedback and suggestions, so please do get in touch if there's anything you'd like to see!
- Leo Richards
Introducing
SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE
Worlds of the Deep is a collaborative project between Natural World Facts and Schmidt Ocean Institute. SOI is a non-profit oceanographic research foundation that has been pioneering deep-sea exploration since 2009. Their ROV SuBastian, depth-rated to 4,500 metres and equipped with a 4K camera, has opened a window to the deep.
Welcome to the Deep...
In the depths of the ocean, life has found creative ways to thrive in a realm of extreme darkness and pressure, starved of food, where the challenges of this remote region call for adaptations of the weird and wonderful.
Across a collection of distinct yet interconnected worlds, the creatures of the deep take part in a drama of beauty, survival, sex, and death, set to the backdrop of a mysterious wonderland that remains largely unexplored.
ENTER A WORLD: (worlds 2 - 5 coming soon)
All Episodes
Delve into the deep sea's dazzling wonderlands, from deep midwaters to abyssal plains and hydrothermal vents. Featuring 4K footage from ROV SuBastian. Worlds of the Deep is a collaborative documentary series with Schmidt Ocean Institute, written narrated and edited by Leo Richards of Natural World Facts.
Midwater organisms showreel
Shot by ROV SuBastian, as featured in Worlds of the Deep.
2. The Midnight Zone
Below a depth of 1,000 metres, the light of the sun is altogether absent, and a host of dramatic animals take to the stage.
4. Seamounts and Canyons
Breaking up the uniformity of the abyssal plain, the seamounts and canyons provide solid ground where colourful corals and gardens of sponge create complex reefs.
1. The Twilight Zone
Just below 100 metres, the ocean midwater becomes a world of gloom, where dazzling bioluminescent drifters and fish of bright silver shimmer in the twilight expanse.
3. The Abyssal Plain
Beneath the crushing pressure of kilometres of water lies a great sea of silt and clay, where curious mud-dwellers abound.
5. Hydrothermal Vents
Where tectonic plates move apart, towering cities can be found in the depths; vents of superheated water, hosting incredible life.