Why sit in a giant, clear ball in the water? For the view—once you’re deep down in the sea, anyway.
The spherical crafts pictured above are bubble subs, a growing trend in deep-sea exploration technology. These human-operated submersibles offer passengers a panoramic view of sea life in deep, dark waters that have long been difficult for people to explore.
Built for searching the ocean’s pitch-black depths, bubble subs feature powerful lights and robotic arms. They are also built to withstand extreme water pressure. A bubble sub’s viewing compartment is made of plastic that’s several inches thick. Why? In the deep sea, the water pressure is so strong that it would crush a human without proper protection. That’s a big reason only 5 percent of the planet’s oceans have been explored.
Already, bubble subs are helping to expand our understanding of tough-to-reach places. In 2012, for example, Japanese scientists in a bubble sub captured the first-ever video footage of a giant squid. Those creatures, which live at extreme depths, are rarely seen alive.