mapping the deep 12 As Dawn said later, “This is further evidence that we as humanity must do better by the ocean and the habitats that we ourselves share and ultimately depend on. There is no Planet B!” But for Dawn, at least, the disappointment of stumbling upon the bottle is quickly replaced by a more positive emotion—elation. After all, she’s made it to the deepest point in the world! It was, she said, a lifelong dream come true, a journey she’d never imagined would be possible. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the moon,” Dawn reflected after her dive, “but that was my moon walk, that was my moon shot. I think for all of us who have been to Challenger Deep, that is our one, that’s the holy grail. And so I felt I understand now why astronauts are so poetic and they express themselves in a certain way that really gets to the heart of our spirituality and our existence, because they have seen Planet Earth in a way that we will never see it. And that’s the way I felt in Challenger Deep. I felt astonishment and wonder and excitement.” Within a few minutes, the Limiting Factor reaches its maximum depth for this expedition: 10,919 meters (35,823 feet). Dawn and Victor take note of some holothurians (sea cucumbers) nestled on the seabed. It’s something of an antidote to the bottle sighting; there’s a certain comfort in realizing that forms of life have been surviving even in these most inhospitable places since long before our species evolved, and they’ll likely continue to exist long after we’re gone. A green glass bottle at the bottom of Challenger Deep.
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