My hands grip the ladder, knuckles turning white as I carefully step down on the floor of the clear acrylic orb. Taking one of six seats, I realize it’s colder than I expected, but after all, I am floating in near-freezing waters on a Seabourn Antarctica cruise.
Our Seabourn submarine pilot, Merel Dalebout, Ph.D., had never done a deep dive here before, and it was likely that no one in the history of the world had either. “We’re in a golden age of deep sea exploration,” she said as the shades of blue turned deeper the further we plunged below the surface. “We’re going places no one has ever gone before, and we may see things no one has ever seen before.”
Dalebout is one of 16 submersible pilots on Seabourn Antarctica cruise’s expedition ships, Pursuit and Venture, which launched in 2022 and 2023. She takes adventurous passengers up to 1,000 feet underwater from Greenland to the South Pacific, but the Great White Continent is arguably its most fascinating dive.
What makes diving on a Seabourn Antarctica cruise so special?
While travelers may see penguin colonies and elephant seals on the shore, the vast majority of Antarctica’s animal diversity is actually underwater.
“You’re talking about such incredibly nutrient-rich waters. The colder the water is, the more gases are dissolved, making it much easier for life,” Dalebout says. “So there’s lots of phytoplankton—that’s the plant component of the plankton. And, as a result, you also get a lot of zooplankton, and of course, you get huge volumes of krill, which all the whales eat.”
Because of all these microscopic animals, visibility in Antarctica’s waters is poor compared to the nutrient-poor crystal-clear waters of the tropics, but the marine life is more unique, possibly even unknown.
“In Antarctic waters, things are very slow-growing, but they are also very, very long-lived. So we’re coming across things like sponges that are 1-foot, 2-foot, even 3 feet tall. And knowing that for a sponge in cold Antarctic waters to even get to about 15 centimeters, it is going to take about 400 to 500 years,” she says. “So that’s just mind-blowing that you’re diving into this incredible ecosystem.”
Fascinated by planet Earth
Growing up in Australia, Dalebout was never far from the water. And while she’s not a self-professed “water baby,” her career has continuously drawn her there. A former whale biologist, she earned her Ph.D. in 2002, specializing in rare beaked whales. It was during her years-long research that she discovered a new species Mesoplodon perrini, or Perrin’s beaked whale.
“I’ve always read a lot of science fiction, and as a child, I always wanted my own little starcruiser to explore outer space and find unknown worlds and new life forms,” Dalebout says. “Having the submersibles that we do and having the ocean on our very own planet, which is full of life, is as close and even more exciting than that childhood dream of having my own little space rocket.”
Following her passions
While doing research at the University of New South Wales, she started questioning her life path. “I know that there are some people who have a singular interest and passion in their lives, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. But I think that many of us are inspired by a lot of different things,” she says.
“I’ve been lucky that I have found the family support to change careers a number of times and to feel strong enough, confident and free enough, to [pursue] my passions,” she says. “I’m quite comfortable that if a new opportunity arises, [I would be] like, ‘Well, that sounds really interesting. Give it a shot.’”
Instead of committing to academia and the tenure track, she decided to volunteer with various environmental education groups in Australia. She trained as a wilderness guide and ended up entering the expedition cruise industry in 2013, which led to the opportunity to train as a Seabourn submarine pilot.
“I have a passion for all the world’s wild places,” she says. “And there’s something very special about going into almost totally unexplored places.”
Becoming a Seabourn submarine pilot?
Dalebout first heard about a program to become a Seabourn submarine pilot when COVID-19 broke out in early 2020. A colleague mentioned Seabourn Antarctica cruises was building two expedition ships equipped with mini submersibles and was looking to train submersible pilots.
“She specifically said they’re looking for women with a marine biology background. Now, I actually am not sure that that was particularly true,” she jokes. “Maybe she just felt more people—more women with a marine biology background—needed to apply.”
Nevertheless, Dalebout found her dream job. After applying, she was accepted and underwent a month-long intensive training where she learned how to pilot this $5 million piece of technology.
In 2022, she became a submersible pilot during the ship’s first Seabourn Antarctica cruise season. “Every dive is just magic. I love it,” she says. “I hope to always share that passion and excitement about the things that we see and the incredible critical nature of the life down there.”
Discovering new things in uncharted waters
Although submersible technology has existed for a while, Dalebout notes that funding bodies have not shown much interest in deep-sea exploration. One of the most fascinating aspects of Seabourn submarine tourism is citizen science.
“We are always super, super keen to see passenger photographs,” she says. “Our priority is piloting and keeping you guys safe and also not damaging the fragile underwater marine life, so sometimes we don’t have time to take our own photos.”
Dalebout says spotting something she’s never seen before is a regular occurrence on dives. She uses passengers’ photos to go online and check with her network of marine colleagues around the world.
“There are a lot of species that we’re still discovering now and ecosystems that are totally new to us,” she says. While she may not have discovered another new species yet, Dalebout and her passengers did find something interesting on the bottom of the ocean floor in a bay near Hvalsey, Greenland.
“I joked and said I wanted to find a Viking longboat, and we didn’t find a longboat, but we found, lying on the seafloor, a really interesting long bone with what looked very clearly like human-made drill holes in it, not modern.”
After taking photos and showing the images to people in the settlements they visited and the Greenland National Museum, they said, “Oh, that’s interesting. That looks like an ancient Inuit or Thule artifact; we have no idea what that is.” It has not been recognized as an official finding, but Dalebout aims to get permission to collect the find on her next dive in the area.
Why this work is critical to science
As Seabourn Antarctica cruises grow, the hunt for lesser-known and lesser-visited destinations becomes part of the draw.
“Scientists rarely get the chance to travel to these places,” Dalebout notes. “There is so much potential for even your most basic citizen science sort of programs. I would love to see more of that happening on board.”
In the future, she hopes to be able to save a seat or two on the Seabourn submarine for scientists who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to travel to these destinations.
“There’s that much-used quote that we will only fight to protect what we know and love. And that’s really true,” she says. “And so I feel very strongly about taking people down on the subs and showing them these incredible underwater communities.”
Photo by Dr_Flash/Shutterstock.com
