Victor Vescovo is an ex-US navy Commander who became the first man to get down all four of the deepest ocean trenches.
Vescovo reached the bottom of the Kermadec Trench in the South Pacific Ocean at the weekend in the submersible DSV Limiting Factor – a two-person submersible built by Florida-based company Triton Submarines.
The 55-year old explorer achieved his personal goal to dive in the four most remote areas of Earth.
Following the nine-hour expedition, Vescovo and a small team reached a maximum depth of 32,818 feet (10,003 metres) at the bottom of Kermadec Trench.
Limiting Factor’s cameras captured footage of ‘one of the deepest jellyfish ever seen on film’ and a ‘brilliant gold’ bacterial mat living off the minerals and gases in the rocks, he said.
Vescovo (left) and a small team reached a maximum depth of 32,818 feet (10,003 metres) at the bottom of Kermadec Trench aboard Limiting Factor – a two-person submersible built by Triton Submarines
The Kermadec Trench, just offshore of New Zealand, is the 4th-deepest trench on the planet. Also due to Antarctica inflow, it’s the Coldest.
It appears that the jellyfish is a Ctenophora (comb jelly) and can survive at 7 tons of pressure.
Vescovo, who was asked by Twitter how jellyfish could survive under so much pressure, replied: “They would probably tell the same thing about us. How can humans exist in such a low pressure environment?” Each creature adjusts to its environment. Evolution is an amazing power.
Footage shows also a darkened seafloor that Limiting Factor lights up. This environment features perpetual darkness, extreme pressures, and extremely cold temperatures.
‘Until this expedition no one knew what the Kermadec Trench looked like and how deep it was,’ Vescovo has told The Times, speaking from the LF’s mothership, DSSV Pressure Drop.
‘If you consider the conditions – more than seven tons of pressure per square inch and just about freezing temperatures and salt water – it’s remarkable that there is life in these deep trenches.’
Vescovo now has reached four of the deepest points known on Earth. He’s visited Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the deepest point on Earth at 35,843 feet (10,925 metres) – a dozen times.
In June 2019, he reached the bottom of the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean, at 35,488 feet (10,817 metres).
Vescovo was joined by Deo Florence Onda, a Filipino oceanographer, to make the first descent into the Philippine Trench’s Emden Deep. This is the third-deepest point in Earth at 32,956 feet, or 10,045 meters. It took place in March of this year.
Victor Vescovo (pictured), an American intelligence officer and millionaire investor in exploration missions, is Victor Vescovo.
Scholl Deep, Kermadec Trench: Pacific Ocean, 32,818ft (10,003m)
Some sources put Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in the northwest Pacific as the fourth-deepest point on Earth and Kermadec Trench as the fifth-deepest.
However, Dr Heather Stewart, a marine geoscientist at the British Geological Survey, told MailOnline that a German team of surveyors failed to find any depths at Kuril-Kamchatka over 31167 feet (9,500 metres).
“The Germans were there to survey the Kermadec Trench using their deep-water multibeam. Their findings, published in 2016, showed that no depths of more than 9.500m had been found.
Vescovo now has reached four of the deepest points known on Earth. He’s visited Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the deepest point on Earth at 35,843 feet (10,925 metres) – a dozen times
Vescovo stated that the bottom of Kermadec Trench has “rather chaotic geology” and “marine life”.
Vescovo funded the construction and design of Limiting Factor. This submersible is capable of diving up to the highest ocean depths.
This privately-funded exploration vehicle is specifically designed for exploring the hadal area of deep ocean. It can be found at depths up to 36,000ft in depressions.
Only microorganisms that are specially trained can survive in such extreme depths. Water pressure at the deepest points on Earth is so intense that it would dissolve the bones of land-based animals, according to Vescovo.
Vescovo explained that Kermadec Trench’s bottom is characterized by a “rather chaotic geology” and marine life.
According to him, “When people consider life on other planets they might think that it will look similar humans or animals we know,” he said to the Times.
‘What’s more likely because of the extreme conditions on other planets is that it will look more like what we find in the deep ocean on Earth – animals more adapted to the extreme environment,’ Vescovo said.
The nine-hour expedition was ‘not all fun and smooth sailing, however – Vescovo faced ‘pretty rough weather’, days of poor sleep and a heavily rocking Pressure Drop en route to the Kermadec Trench.
Vescovo is known for leading the Five Deeps Expedition (FDE), a successful mission to travel to the deepest point in each of the world’s five major oceans – Atlantic, Southern, Indian, Pacific and Arctic – over the course of 10 months from 2018 to 2019.
American ex-intelligence officer and financier turned millionaire, who served aboard Limiting Factor on all five missions.
Triton DSV Limiting Factor allows you to dive up to 36,000ft and accommodates two passengers, plus one pilot.
At 20,000 to 36,000 feet under the ocean’s surface, lies the hadal area of the ocean. This zone is named after Hades (an ancient Greek god of death).
Victor Vescovo, who was part of the Expedition to Challenger Deep, became the fourth man in history to do so on May 2019.
Vescovo did five dives in Mariana Trench during seven days.
As well as three new species of marine life, and the deepest piece of recovered mantle rock, Vescovo and his team found a plastic bag and a candy wrapper – a stark reminder of the scale of plastic pollution.