Despite the growing anthropological literature on the ocean, the deep sea itself remains relatively understudied in anthropology, especially when compared to the growing attention it has received in other social sciences. The mystery evoked by the deep sea—its darkness, remoteness, and inaccessibility—has long captivated the public imagination. Iconic works of science fiction as well as pioneering documentaries reflect a fascination with unveiling the unknown; this spirit of discovery, of bringing light into the depths, remains alive today and has arguably even intensified. Scientists race to study its fragile and little-understood ecosystems before commercial deep-sea mining gains momentum, aiming to fill urgent knowledge gaps. In this high-stakes environment, anthropologically ‘being (down) there’ is no longer solely about exploring the abyss itself.
Armored sea cucumber
- More recently, hydrofeminist perspectives, which emphasise a reciprocal relationship with water—learning from it while also giving back by embracing shared responsibility—have further deepened these discussions (Shefer, Bozalek and Romano 2024).
- Many deep-sea organisms are capable of producing light, either on their own or with the help of bacteria.
- Given the insufficiency of information on how it could affect marine environments, countries such as Germany and Canada, as well as the European Parliament, have called for national and regional moratoria on deep-sea mining.
- These species include whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), mako sharks (genus Isurus), manta rays (genus Mobula) and deep-sea dwellers such as chocolate skates (Rajella bigelowi), megamouth sharks (Megachasma pelagios) and small-eyed rabbitfish (Hydrolagus affinis).
- This is possible thanks to biochemical reactions in which compounds known as luciferins react with oxygen and the enzyme luciferase.
- However, as early as the 1960s, China took notice and began investing, taking over the United States’s historical dominance by the 1990s.
- Each zone has a different mix of species adapted to its specific light level, pressure, temperature, and community.
Yet even in this hostile environment, there are survivors that use special strategies to cope. Like on land, deep canyons can stretch for hundreds of miles across the seafloor. The walls, ledges, and bottoms of canyons create a diverse variety of habitats—many of which are steep, and scoured by currents rich in tiny food particles—that enable an array of sea creatures to live there. The rocky ledges are a perfect place for deep sea corals to attach, and the muddy bottom is a soft home for worms and mollusks to burrow.
Adaptation to hydrostatic pressure
At first inspection, it seems unlikely that anything could live in such an environment—spewing from cracks in the earth’s crust is scalding water that has been heated to temperatures up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius), a temperature hot enough to melt lead. These vents are also so deep that they never see a glimmer of light from the sun. Despite these obstacles, clams, mussels, shrimp, and gigantic worms thrive in these habitats.
Threats to underwater cultural heritage: deep-sea mining
This not only makes great depths very difficult to reach without mechanical aids, but also provides a significant difficulty when attempting to study any organisms that may live in these areas as their cell chemistry will be adapted to such vast pressures. Today, more than ever, anthropology must engage with this seascape, which—as this entry shows—is increasingly seen as a sociopolitical space. In recent decades, anthropology has expanded its focus beyond coastal fishing communities to engage with the ocean more broadly (Helmreich 2009, 2015, 2023; Aswani 2020; Leivestad 2022; Dua 2024a, 2024b). This growing attention to the ocean is part of a broader shift in the social sciences and humanities—variously termed the Deep Sea ‘oceanic turn’ (Deloughrey 2016), the ‘blue turn’ (Braverman and Johnson 2020), or ‘blue humanities’ (Mentz 2023). These movements have contributed significantly to challenging ‘terra-centric’ perspectives on the sea (Steinberg and Peters 2015), advocating for approaches that think in and through the ocean as a form of radically situated knowledge (Jue 2020). More recently, hydrofeminist perspectives, which emphasise a reciprocal relationship with water—learning from it while also giving back by embracing shared responsibility—have further deepened these discussions (Shefer, Bozalek and Romano 2024).
Red Sea crisis
- Between 1840 and 1880, British and American scientists and hydrographers extensively studied the deep sea, a period marked by heightened cultural fascination with maritime depths.
- The deep sea is characterized by extreme conditions, including immense pressure, near-freezing temperatures, and complete darkness.
- In March 2025, Canadian mining company The Metals Company announced that, through a U.S. subsidiary (The Metals Company USA LLC), it had begun the process of applying for licenses and permits under the U.S.
- This region begins at a depth of approximately 200 meters (656 feet) and extends to the ocean floor, which can reach depths of over 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) in places like the Mariana Trench.
- The deep sea is home to natural resources that have been a subject of interest since the 1970s.
- On the contrary, the issues raised by scholars engaging with the deep sea are deeply anthropological in nature.
- As you dive down through this vast living space you notice that light starts fading rapidly.
The deep ocean plays an especially critical role in climate regulation, carbon storage, heat transport, and many ways in which scientists are only beginning to fully understand. There is also a range of research efforts underway to obtain the necessary minerals without mining virgin land, including recovery from coal waste or hard rock mine tailings. Meanwhile, opinion remains deeply divided on whether deep-sea mining should be allowed at all. Given the insufficiency of information on how it could affect marine environments, countries such as Germany and Canada, as well as the European Parliament, have called for national and regional moratoria on deep-sea mining. Portugal passed a law banning the practice in its national waters for the next 25 years.
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This entry highlights anthropology’s shy yet critical approach to the deep sea as an ethnographic site—one imbued with meanings that shift depending on who encounters it, with what tools, and through which mediations. It does so through interdisciplinary insights from the social sciences and reflections that are profoundly anthropological in theory. The first section explores the deep sea’s otherness or strangeness, a space that challenges terrestrial frameworks and poses questions about the nature of knowledge. The second examines how the deep sea is socially constructed through politics of (in)visibility and the deep sea’s representation as a chaotic and messy space. The third highlights how relationships between human and non-human life in the deep sea can be reimagined in non-extractive and porous ways. The fourth presents another approach, viewing the deep sea as a privileged site from which to interrogate the past, critique the present, and envision Afrofuturistic futures.
You can support our work by making a gift today or exploring other ways to give. While exploratory mining to test equipment has occurred at a small scale, deep-sea mining has not yet been undertaken commercially. But some national governments and mining companies plan to begin as soon as possible. The Marine Science blog showcases the latest developments and research in the marine and freshwater sectors across all government departments.
The canal not only facilitated trade but also solidified Darius’s control over Egypt and enhanced the Achaemenid Empire’s economic and political power in the region. The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common colours – the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the north-western part of the Indian Ocean, and also to a region on Mars. The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.
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To reduce potential impacts, the authors recommend discharging plumes below 2,000 m (about 6,600 ft), or even directly at the seafloor. Still, they caution that these midwater plumes are likely to expand considerably over many square kilometers, regardless of their depth, with largely unknown impacts on midwater communities. Moreover, the cumulative effect of releasing such plumes throughout a mine’s decades-long lifespan remains uncertain. Covering over 70% of the planet, the ocean is Earth’s largest life-support system, and it has already shielded us from the worst impacts of the climate crisis. It has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat generated by burning fossil fuels, and about 30% of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s. Without this massive buffer, global temperatures would already be far higher than they are today.But the story doesn’t end at the surface.
The black smoke of hydrothermal vents, by contrast, is highlighted to depict the environment as legible and manageable (Childs 2019). However, this otherworldly perception of the deep sea should not alienate us from recognising the real and tangible consequences of climate change, ocean acidification, mining, industrial fishing, and pollution. The fact that abyssal zones differ from shallow waters does not imply a lack of interconnection between them. Oceanographers, for example, remind us that benthic creatures (organisms that live on or near the bottom of marine ecosystems such as sponges, worms, sea stars, etc.) rely on phenomena like whale falls, in which whale carcasses sink to the deep-sea floor.
The reefs form platforms and sometimes lagoons along the coast and occasionally other features such as cylinders (such as the Blue Hole (Red Sea) at Dahab). With mining for polymetallic nodules on the horizon, Judah emphasized the need for more research to fully understand the effects on sharks, rays and chimeras. TMC did not respond to Mongabay’s questions about the study’s suggestion to discharge below, rather than right at, 2,000 m, or whether the company would adjust its mining plans based on these findings.
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