A 43,681-dive analysis finds that today's average deep-sea camera system covers just 2.9 square kilometres a year, making exhaustive visual coverage impossible without a different strategy.
Humans have visually observed less than 0.001 percent of the deep ocean floor — an area roughly the size of Rhode Island — and scientists calculate that even with 1,000 deep-sea vehicles working at today’s average rate, seeing the entire thing once would still take more than 100,000 years.
The Long View