A recent publication in the scientific journal Frontiers highlights some of the biggest challenges confronting modern deep-sea exploration, namely that technologies are expensive to develop, purchase, and deploy. This, in turn, leads to an imbalance in who can access, utilize, and benefit from these tools, creating longer-term inequities among early career engineers, practitioners, and scientists who might benefit from technical training opportunities.

The Bermuda Program, part of BIOS’s Ocean Academy suite of local education programs, has been providing internship opportunities to Bermudian students, aged 18 and older, since 1976. In that time, more than 250 summer internship placements have been provided to young Bermudians. The program pairs students with BIOS faculty and scientific staff, who serve as mentors for participants while they conduct research projects in the fields of marine and atmospheric science.

Bermuda has a rich heritage of deep-sea research, dating back nearly a century to the man who pioneered underwater exploration: Charles William Beebe. In the 1930s, Beebe and his colleague, Otis Barton, designed and launched a spherical submersible, called the Bathysphere, which they used to descend to a depth of 3,028 feet (920 meters)—far beyond the previous record of 525 feet (160 meters). Their deep-sea expeditions, which continued over three consecutive summers, resulted in some of the earliest records of fishes living hundreds of feet below the surface.