James Cameron gives submersible to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Filmmaker James Cameron handed over the keys to his recently finished DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submersible to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution last week.

Cameron recently completed a dive in the sub to explore the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench.  During the dive, Cameron took the sub down 35,787 feet beneath the surface.

Cameron has been working closely with WHOI for many years during movie production and his own deep sea excursions.

When his team was building the sub, Cameron said WHOI was building the submersible Nereus. He said that the two subs were on different build paths. “So, we gave each other great encouragement and kind of split up to go solve problems,” Cameron said. “When I got down there (to the bottom of the Mariana Trench), I saw tracks on the ground that were probably from Nereus.”

Cameron emphasized the importance of a combined technological effort to learn and understand the world’s oceans. “The key to ocean exploration, we believe, is human-occupied vehicles working in concert with autonomous vehicles, with remotely operated vehicles, with distributed instrument systems on the sea floor,” he said. “All of these tools have to work together.”

Image: The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER (Credit: Scripps Oceanography Institution)