Technology is great, says “OceanXplorers’” Aldo Kane, but “the human factor can make or break a mission.”
“It just takes a few nights of not sleeping well or rough seas and then you have a recipe for potential disaster,” he says.
Knowing how close experts dare get to a polar bear could mean the difference between getting valuable information or saving a life.
Front starboard side of the OceanXplorer.
“When you’re in that environment of cutting-edge science and exploration, there is no room for ego. There is no room for just looking out for yourself,” Kane says. “Every single person is there for a specific reason.”
Kane, an ex-Royal Marine special operations officer, helps determine where a state-of-the-art scientific research and exploration vessel can go in the world’s oceans. Chronicling the journey in “OceanXplorers,” a six-part series shows what he and others (among them researchers, biologists and innovators) have been able to discover in these unseen worlds.
Their ship is equipped with the latest technology, a robotic submarine and a helicopter.
Aldo Kane looks out from a small boat off the coast of Bimini, Bahamas.
Three-person submarines can go 3,000 feet deep, bringing them to “parts of the ocean that humans basically never go to,” says Eric Stackpole, the mission’s technology innovator. “Both Aldo and I scuba dive but when you’re able to go deep into the ocean, you’re really seeing part of the planet that humans never get to lay eyes on. That acrylic sphere is similar to the index of refraction of the water. So, when you go down, you don’t even see the sphere around you. It just seems like you’re in this bubble of water. It’s an incredible feeling.”
Because he’s able to “MacGyver” equipment on the spot, Stackpole is often called on to spring into action when the costlier equipment doesn’t work. “When all you have is some electrical tape that was in your backpack, that’s what you’ve got to use,” he says. “It’s about improvising. You’ve got to be able to pivot when the moment comes.”
In the National Geographic series, Stackpole takes those risks and helps determine where change is necessary.
Eric Stackpole giving a thumbs up aboard the OceanXplorer.
“When you’re in the middle of the ocean, there is no backup ship, there is no hardware store,” Kane says. “You have all the best people in the world in their specific fields but if is the weather is up, the sea state changes or various different bits and pieces change, you have to flex and the mission changes. That’s real life.”
And, yes, that’s documented in the series.
At one point, the team goes in for a closer look at polar bears to discover how they eat when their food chain is disrupted. On land for a closer look, they’re approached by walruses and must determine what course of action they need to take.
Eric Stackpole, left, and Aldo Kane smiling aboard the boat.
“In the field, you have to trust the people you’re with,” Stackpole says. “It definitely was an adrenaline rush when that happened but I always had a feeling that the people we were with were familiar with the risks we were taking.”
In addition to the 70-person crew aboard OceanX (as the ship is commonly called), the mission includes visiting scientists who “have spent their entire career getting to this moment,” Stackpole says. “The stakes are incredibly high. One of the things I really liked about this series is they don’t want to just have everything polished and buttoned and perfect. This is real science; the scientists are going to publish off this if we are successful. That may be a huge revelation for the scientific field. If we fail, it may be an opportunity lost.”
Kane says it’s invigorating spending breakfast “with the most eminent scientists in the field. Of all the things I’ve done in my life, it’s been one of the most influential.”
Aldo Kane looks out at icy water from the bow of OceanXplorer.
The stakes are high for the crew, too. The “OceanXplorer” folks may spend days trying to find an elusive creature or a rare phenomenon. “It’s very possible that we’ll get that one moment for that episode,” Stackpole says. Or, the mission fails – it’s all part of the unknown that “OceanXplorers” embraces.
An underwater “Mission: Impossible”? “It certainly feels like that sometimes,” Stackpole says. “As we each pursued our own careers, people got to see the kinds of things that we care about, that we’re interested in doing. And the powers that be – the producers – figured out what the right combination of skills was to make sure that we had successful missions and that we’d be able to communicate that to the world.”
“OceanXplorers” premieres Aug. 18 on National Geographic. All episodes stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
