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We live on a planet veiled in blue. And yet, though the ocean surrounds us, nourishes us, shapes our weather and our myths, our knowledge of it is limited. This paradox—of presence without understanding—is not new to the human condition. It is the mark of every frontier. But there comes a moment when a civilization, if it is to grow wise, must turn its instruments not only outward to the stars but inward, toward the depths of our planet.
This video, created by the Schmidt Ocean Institute for the WOW24 World Ocean Week Festival, is such a moment. It is not a catalog of facts, though it is built upon them. It is not a travelogue, though it traverses wonders. It is a meditation on the process of knowing, on the fusion of technology and imagination, on the patience required to descend into the unknown.
These are lifeforms that, at first sight, seem alien—something imagined from science fiction. Yet they are part of our own biosphere, kin to us in ways we have only begun to grasp. Their otherness is evidence of the vastness of life’s creativity. And in observing them, in touching their world with care and precision, we learn not only what they are—but who we are.
And how do we translate such knowledge? Not in numbers alone. The Schmidt Ocean Institute invites artists aboard its research vessels—painters, composers, dancers. Because it understands that awe is the meeting place of reason and emotion. What we cannot yet explain, we can express. And what we express may lead us, in time, to explanation.
This video, presented during the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, is therefore a testimony to a timeless impulse—the same drive that led ancient civilizations to chart the heavens, that sent Darwin to the Galápagos. It reminds us that the ocean is not a resource; it is a realm, and we are not its owners, but its students.
We must understand the contours of this realm in order to protect it, and that understanding demands exploration. This film stands as both witness and invitation. It says: Here is what we are learning. Here is what we might yet become.
It is, in the deepest sense, a portrait of ourselves—searching, questioning, casting light into the deep. 
Lead image: Schmidt Ocean Institute
