The Guardian view on ocean science: we should care more and invest more | Editorial
The tentative identification of a scrap of wing washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Ri(C)union as part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight M370 is a reminder of a paradox of scientific investment and capacity. Humans have identified and pinpointed the fabric of Beagle 2, a probe not much bigger than a dustbin lid, lost for more than 11 years on the plains of Mars, always more than 60m km (37m miles) away. But so far they have not found a giant Boeing 777 lost 16 months ago in an ocean crossed by mariners for a thousand years. The oceans are the last unexplored region of the planet. Oceanographers have complained for decades that the topography of the planet Venus - shrouded in a dense atmosphere raining sulphuric acid on to a terrain hot enough to melt lead - is better mapped than most of the surface of the blue planet Earth.
There are reasons, many of them understandable. Oceanography begins with expensive hardware in the form of specially designed or modified ships that must spend weeks in all weathers on any mission, and these ships have to be supported by submersibles that can operate under unimaginable pressures and with sensors that can "see" at depths reached by no light at all.
Continue reading...