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Hello, in 1870, Jule Vern described the deep ocean in 2000 leagues under the sea.

He wrote, The seas and immense desert where man is never alone, for he feels life quivering

around him on every side. This fiction was actually

rather closer to the truth than the signs of the time when the Azoaic theory

held sway and it was believed that nothing could exist below 600 meters.

Now we estimate there are more species in the deep ocean

than in the rest of the planet put together.

Somewhere between 2 million and 100 million

different species of organism are living on the ocean floor.

Science has dispelled the old idea that huge underground tunnels join our oceans together,

and even older ocean the giant crocans lurk in the deep,

but our seas still retain much of their mystery, and there have been more men on

the surface of the moon than at the bottom of the ocean.

So how should we understand the sea?

The lonely sea and the sky.

With me to discuss the signs that has attempted to plummet as the historian of oceanography

Margaret Deacon until recently visiting research fellow at Southampton Oceanography Center and author

of scientists and the sea.

Also with us is Tony Rice, biological oceanographer and author of Scientists and the Sea. Also with us is Tony Rice.

Biological oceanographer and author of Deep Ocean.

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