Livestreaming the Bottom of the Ocean, Free to Anyone

Schmidt Ocean Institute operates the research vessel Falkor (too) and the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian, and hands the berths to scientists at no cost through an open application process, on the condition that the data become public. Every dive below roughly 600 metres is livestreamed on its YouTube channel, so a seamount is often being seen by the public at the same moment as the scientists aboard. The model has produced a steady stream of discovery in places that matter for protection arguments: around twenty candidate new species across ten seamounts of the Nazca Ridge in international waters, the first recording of a rare squid, thriving deep-sea coral reefs off Chile, and 31 new species confirmed from a June 2026 expedition. Because the imagery and data are unrestricted, the results feed directly into national and high seas protection cases rather than sitting behind a paywall.