The Sea - Present

The Sea

Present

The sea is vast and unexplored, and has played a key role in the development of mankind.  I will be looking into deep sea exploration and discoveries initially and will see where that takes me.

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Deep Sea Diving

Dixon, B. (2011)
Chinese Submarine (Jiaolong) and its crew of 3, dived to depths of over 5000 meters during September 2011.  They have been diving to depths of over 3000 meters over the last few months, and reach 5057 meters in the most decent dive.
The purpose of the dives was to record information about the substantial pressure at those depths, and also to plant a Chinese flag at 3000 meters in the South Chinese Sea.

The submarine weighs 22 tonnes and was only 8.2 meters long, but it can withstand 5000 tonnes of pressure.

Dixon, B. (2011)

In my opinion this story is a real milestone in exploration of the sea, as at 5000 meters, the submarine can cover 70% of all the sea beds in the world, which opens up a huge opportunity for mankind to really begin to understand what is actually down there.

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Angler Fish

Perun, B. (2011)

The deep sea angler fish is a fascinating and intriguing fish.  As Blane Perun explains; "There are more than 200 different species of anglerfish worldwide... One of the ocean's strangest looking fish... found worldwide in near freezing water more than 3,000 feet below the surface."

Perun, B. (2011)

This anglerfish is so strange looking, it makes me wonder what else could be deep down in the sea, below the depth possible today, and it also makes me think, what used to be down there hundreds or even thousands of years ago.  Based on the theory of evolution, there must be or used to be fish that this angler fish evolved from.

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Deep Sea Fishing

Eilperin, J. (2011)

I have come across an article where scientist claim that many deep sea fish species are endangered due to deep sea fishing and nothing is being done about it.  This instantly shocked me, as based on my knowledge, it is illegal to hunt a species which is classed as endangered.  Not only that, but it seems completely ignorant to hunt a species to a point where it becomes extinct.  Once it is extinct, there will be a massive drop in profit for the fishing companies.  It makes me think that these companies are only thinking about now and not thinking about the future.  Why choose high profit for a short period of time, when you can have medium profit inevitably.

Eilperin, J. (2011)

The main reason these fish are so easily endangered due to fishing is because of their life spans and the way that they reproduce.  Juliet Eilperin explains that "Orange Roughy, which Australia declared a threatened species in 2006, take 30 years to reach sexual maturity and live up to 149 years." - Eilperin, J. (2011)

Problems like this will only get worse as "The estimated mean depth of fishing has more than tripled since the 1950s, from 492 feet to 1,706 feet in 2004" - Telmo Morato, and once technology improves, deep sea fishing companies will continue to go deeper, allowing them to fish and endanger more species.

Eilperin, J. (2011)

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Scary New Species

From looking at the research I have already done, I have noticed that the deeper down into the ocean we go, the weirder and scary looking the species get.
I have decided to look into the creepiest and oddest looking species in the deep sea.

John. (2007)

"This strange cartilaginous fish uses its long snout to scan over the sea floor for the electrical impulses of its prey that bury in the muddy sea floor, just like a metal detector. Like other chimaeras (such as ghost and elephant sharks), these animals lay horny egg cases in which their young are left to develop, potentially for up to one year."

John. (2007)

Unknown. (2007). 10 Horrible Deep Sea Creatures.

"The giant isopod, known scientifically as Bathynomus giganteus, is the largest known member of the isopod family. It is very closely related to the small pillbugs that you can find in the garden. It is a carnivorous crustacean that spends its time scavenging the deep ocean floor. Food is extremely scarce at these great depths, so the isopod has adapted to eat whatever happens to fall to the ocean floor from above. It will also feed on some of the small invertebrates that live at these depths." -  Unknown. (2007). 10 Horrible Deep Sea Creatures.
"Giant isopods are known to reach a size of over 16 inches in length and are one of the largest members of the crustacean family. These animals are very prehistoric in appearance. When threatened, the can roll themselves into a tight ball where they are protected by their strong, armour-plated shells. They have complex mouths that contain many components that work together to pierce, shred, and disembowel live or dead prey. Giant isopods are all over the world at depths of over 2000 feet." - Unknown. (2007). 10 Horrible Deep Sea Creatures.

This species truly intrigues me, as when I was very young, I would spend hours collecting small pillbugs (woodlice).  They were the only bug that didn't creep me out.  I have always been scared of the open sea and the odd creatures in the sea, but noticing that this giant isopod is very much like the small pillbug, it makes me less creeped out.  It also makes me think about giantism and if it is possible in every species.

The small pillbug is about 1cm in length and the giant isopod is up to 16inches in length.  They are genetically very similar and clearly relate to each other somehow.  If you think about the scale difference; over 30 times larger, and the possibility that giantism like this is possible with every species, we could evolve into 180ft humans.  That's the height of Niagara Falls.

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Ship Wrecks

Thanks to the development of technology, there are now robots and submarines that are able to explore the vast depths and sea beds around the world, which opens up a new opportunity for discovering ship wrecks and other lost treasures.

Brady, S. (2011)

One surprising fact I found out was that "In recent years, cash-strapped governments have started looking to lost cargoes as a way to raise money."

Broad, W. (2011)

If I had to put a name to this idea, it would be Deep Sea Pirates.

The idea that governments fund their countries by searching for lost treasures is truly worrying.  And what worries me more is that the British government is one of the first to do so.  Although, they have discovered two lost cargo ships already in just the past few years.  "Both ships had been owned by the British Indian Steam Navigation Company" and collectively, their treasures add up to around £150 million worth of silver.  The deep sea diving company that discovered them (Odyssey) will keep 80% of the profit, and the government will receive 20%.
Brady, S. (2011)

I am clearly going into the wrong profession.

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My General Views So Far - The Sea - Present

I have learnt lots of new things in the past week or so.  There have been so many new discoveries, and there is so much more to learn about what is down in the pitch black seas.

Until recently, the deep sea hadn't even been touched on by humans, except for sinking ships and our waste.  But we seem to be really focusing on exploring it now.  Sometimes for scientific discovery, but sometimes for profit and selfish gain.

I think exploring the deep sea is a good idea and is really useful for understanding more about species and evolution, but it is impossible for humans not to resist the urge to exploit other species and discoveries for selfish needs, such as; fishing species into extinction and disturbing ship wrecks which are technically resting places for the entire crews.

I'm having fun researching into the sea and exploration, but I feel the area is too vast and I need to focus on a small aspect of it, to allow myself to branch off more and to really look into subjects more intensely.

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Links with the Media

The most obvious link The Sea has with the media would either be Fishing or Cruise Holidays.  There are also many games related to the sea, countless films, and 100's of documentaries and TV shows.

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Games

One of my favourite games is Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the first mission of the campaign involve you and a team of experienced soldiers being dropped onto a huge freight in the open sea.

FlashTrackz. (2010)

One of the oldest games is Battleships.  This game has been popular for countless years and new and up-to-date versions keep getting released.

Unknown. (2009). Battleship Screenshot 2.
Above is an image of the newest Battleship game.  It is available on Xbox360 Live Arcade.  It still works in exactly the same way as the original, and it has still sold well.

Fish mini-games; there are countless mini-games on the internet where you control one or more fish around a fish tank/the sea/etc.. You start off small and eat small fish, but then get bigger and eat bigger fish whilst avoid fish larger than you from eating you.  It is a simple and addiction concept.

There are many Fishing specific games out there too.  As it is a fairly niche market for games, there is only one of two good Fishing games.

Martes, A. (2007)

'Rapala: Tournament Fishing' has been the most famous fishing game for Xbox.  It was release in 2007 and it has a main campaign mode, aswell as single tournament modes and online tournaments for multiplayer.  It is a good game and has done well.

Landis, S. (2008)

A very popular game that features Fishing is RuneScape.  Runescape is an MMORPG game that has millions of users.  It has been around for many years and one of the key professions in the game is Fishing.  Each skill levels up to 99 and Fishing is seen as one of the hardest to achieve, and requires great dedication.  There are many rewards once you reach level 99 Fishing and it is one of the best ways to gain mass amounts of money in the RuneScape.

There is a solid background of Pirate games out there, most of which derive from Pirate films, but there are some original Pirate Games out there.

GameSpot. (2007). Sid Meier's Pirates!.
Sid Meier's Pirates!
This game was released in 2007 and received high ratings on all consoles, except the Wii.  It did well and was an addicting game.
You played as a Pirate Captain of the Caribbean; you levelled up and gained new skills and increased your crew and ship size.  You could ransack Ports and find hidden ancient treasures.
I like the sound of this game and can see why it did so well.  It is hard for a Pirate game to well without the backing of a film previous to it.

GameSpot. (2008). Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Pirates of the Burning Sea.
This game is quite different to other Pirate games as it is a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game).  It is again set in the Caribbean, and you level up your character and gain skills and talents.  You can face-off with other players, or team up to fight larger and stronger foes.
It received great ratings all around, but never got the attention it deserved.  It did well, but could have done amazing if it was more known about.
I really like MMORPG's, and I would have loved to play this game back when it was more popular when released in 2008.  Lots of players still play this game, but it doesn't have enough frequently players to reach its true potential.

GameSpot. (2011). Pirates of Black Cove.
Pirates of Black Cove.
This PC game came out this year.  It is an action/strategy game where you play as a crew of pirates trying to become the best and most feared.  It received rather bad reviews and had many updates within the first week of release due to errors and glitches.
I like the look of this game, the style is nice and the environments seem to be vast and well created, but from reading many reviews, it seems this game has potential to be great, but was just made badly and there are too many problems for it to be fun.  But even due to its horrible reviews (3.5/10), the game still sold well in its first 2 weeks of release which I believe to be because of the consistent Pirate fan-base.
VanOrd, K. (2011).

There are many other Pirate games about, some do well, and some do not.  Most are similar to 'Sid Meier's Pirates!', and have a story to follow.
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TV

There are 1000's of documentaries about the sea, above and below the surface.  There are documentaries about cruise ships and life on-board.  There are also ones about fishing, from both the fisherman's and the fishes perspectives.  There are also ones about the deep sea and life down there.  There are also ones about trade via the sea and freights.

I think the fact that there are so many documentaries about the sea, proves the fact there is so much to learn and find out about it.

Amazon. (2009)

One interesting documentary series going on at the moment on BBC Four is 'South Pacific'.  This show looks at the remote Islands in the South Pacific.  It has had episodes about waves and surfing, aswell as one about fishing and the lower life-stock of fish.

It is an unbiased show and gives the viewer both sides of an argument if there is one.

The episode about fishing in the South Pacific shows a big fishing company and how they use large nets to catch 1000's of fish in a day.  Then they explain what this is doing to the numbers of fish in the area they fish.

BBC. (2011)

Then they go on to show a fishing company that has been around for decades, and shows that they still use their old techniques of fishing with as it doesn't cause the fish numbers to drop.

WhySharksMatter. (2010)

One thing I have myself doing quite often now, is logging onto Youtube.com and searching for videos of the deep sea.  I have also been watching many deep sea documentaries.  I find these videos really interesting as some of the creatures being discovered are insanely obscure.

Some really popular deep sea documentaries are Deep Sea Salvage, Deep Sea Detectives, IMAX Under The Sea 3D, and Aliens of the Deep Sea.

Some of the newer documentaries coming out now, document the after effects of tsunamis.  There have been videos on Youtube.com with millions of views, showing a tsunami in progress, the after effects of a tsunami, and some things that have been pulled up out of the sea due to the tsunami.

Below are some images from those videos.

BBC. (2011)

Fricker, M. (2011)

Cliff. (2005)

Christensen, B. (2011)

Pat. (2008)

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Films

Play. (2011)

Films make the sea seem like a scary and unforgiving environment, and all the films to do with the sea, tend to be horrors/thrillers.  After searching 'The Sea' into Play.com's search under the DVD section, I found 334 films to do with the sea.  The majority were mature films about sharks, but there were also a good amount of children's fiction films, all animated.

Some great Shark Films are 'Deep Blue Sea', 'Open Water', 'Shark Night', 'Jaws', 'The Beach', 'Soul Surfer'.

All these films portray sharks as the enemy and they are always after humans for food, which isn't a trait of sharks normally.

There seems to be a small number of shark and sea based films, and it cannot be classed as its own category, but all the films that come out, always tend to do well.  There seems to be a very steady but high popularity of these types of films; not many, but always popular.

 LeVasseur, A. (2003)

Open Water is a very unique film, it is about a couple that get left out in the open water, far too far to swim to any land.  They have life jackets and were out scuba diving.  They get left out in the water and a shark locates them.  It really plays on the fear of the open water and the fear of sharks.

Michael. (2011)

Shark Night is the newest of the films I have listed, it seems to be about a group of young adults on a lake holiday doing water sports, when a shark appears and the film unfolds from there.

IMDB. (2010). Clash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans doesn't heavily involve the sea, but includes the Kraken (mythical creature) and shows its immense power and mysteriousness, which still makes the viewer fear the sea and its contents.

IMDB. (2011). Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
"Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too." - IMDB. (2011). Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
This 4th instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series came out this year (2011), and was yet another huge success.  It was just as funny and fun as the past 3, and the story kept my interested the whole time.  This episode of the franchise brought in more profit than any of the other 3 films; $1,043,871,802.
IMDB. (2011). Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Don. (2011)

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

This epic story is based on the books from years ago.  It is an animated film, but is in a very realistic style, which is something very new.  The story follows Tintin and Captain Haddock as they set off on a treasure hunt.  It is a good looking film and the popularity of the books and past products of the franchise means that this film should do very well.

Pereyra, A. (2006)
Happy Feet is about a penguin that tap dances.  He is seen as strange by other penguins, but becomes loved by everyone.  It is a film for young children, which is ideal, as a cuddly penguin is just as advertiseable as a cuddly bear.
I think penguins are a good animal for children to like, and i think the film was a good idea. Happy Feet was such a hit that they have made Happy Feet 2.
It seemed as though the penguin phase came out of nowhere, and it was a big hit.

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Geordie. (2006)
Overall, The Sea is a big part of everything and cannot be left out of any media, but it is very strong in Film and TV over other Medias such as Games or Magazines.

The Sea is portrayed in films as a dangerous and scary environment, and features mainly in horror/scary films involving sharks or other feared predators.  Whereas in documentaries and TV shows, it is portrayed as an unknown and mysterious environment.  Both are accurate and related, as part of what makes the films to do with the sea scary, is the unknown and not knowing what is down there, and not knowing how it works.
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TV

When searching through the BBC website for documentaries, I came across a TV show called Frozen Planet.  I decided to watch a few episodes, and some of the things I saw were truly amazing.  It was genuinely interesting and fascinating.

BBC. (2011)
Frozen Planet documents the on goings of the Antarctic of the year.  The most recently episode documented polar bears and how they raised and protect their cubs.  It also showed seals; how the mothers raise their young and how the males work during mating season.  But the most interesting part of the episode for me, was the 14 year old caterpillar; it is a caterpilla covered in fur/hair, that stocks up on food over the sun month in the Antarctic, then gets frozen in the cold and dies.  But returns to life after almost 9 months with sun and with freezing temperatures.  It repeats this process for over 14 years, until one year it decides to create its cocoon, and just before the sun months are over, it emerges from its cocoon as a giant moth.  The moth then fly's off to mate, until it dies just a few days later.
BBC. (2011)
This documentary is truely something new.  Things shown in this show have never been seen before.  It is one of the most viewed programmes on the BBC at this moment in time.

BBC. (2011)
One of the most featured animals in Frozen Planet are Penguins.  The King Penguins, seen in the image above, is the second largest penguin species alive today.
Penguins could be said to be the icon of the cold.  They were the most popular animal a few years ago, around the time that the film Happy Feet was released.

Gray, R. (2010)
Another very popular animal are Seals.  But they did not become loved due to a film like penguins.  Their love came from the issue of Seal Clubbing (seal hunting) in Canada.  People would go out with blunt weapons and hunt seals and beat them to death like it was some kind of sport.
Seal hunting had been going on for decades, but never as much until near the millennium.  Because of the increase in the amount of seal hunting, it got more attention, good and bad.  There were masses of complaints and petitions filed to stop the 'sport'.  It eventually received so much bad press that the 'sport' was banned.
It was because of the mass hate for seal clubbing, that gave birth to the huge love for seals.

 Stock, S. (2008)
Since the banning of seal clubbing, the amount of seals in zoos and water parks have increased, and there are many seal shows, where seals show off tricks.
Seals are clever and fast learners, and because of this and their recent increase in popularity, they have been featured in many TV programmes and Films in recent years.
I like that Seals are popular and I love seeing them at zoos and watching them have fun and do tricks.  They are one of the most entertaining animals.
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Toys

Cuddly Toys have always been popular for children and as a gift for your female partner.  The icon cuddly toy is the bear, but there is a huge market for cuddly toys of animals from the sea.  From the hippo, to the duck, to the killer whale.  As I noted before, penguins have been hugely popular since Happy Feet, but there are so many other toys of sea animals.

thegiftexperience. (2011)

Most of these animals have a few stories with that animal being the main character.  Daffy Duck, Mumble (penguin), Gloria (hippo), Willy (killer whale), etc..
Films, TV and stories with talking animals as character have always been popular, and are usually targeted at children.  As technology advances, better visuals and lip syncing is making animated films more popular.
There was under 100 animated films in the 1970's.
Fewer than 250 animated films in the 1980's.
Around 500 animated films in the 1990's.  Most of which were in the late 90's.
Over 2000 animated films since 2000, with more being produced each year.
Unknown. (2010). List of animated feature films.
Completist Geek. (2010)
IMDB. (2011). Most Popular Animation Feature Films.
Listopedia. (2011)

I personally love cuddly toys, not for myself of course, to give as a gift.
They are a great idea and have proved to do well.  Obviously certain animals will do better than others, and that depends on where else they are featured; Films, TV, Books, etc..
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Books

Banville, J. (2005)
When I typed 'The Sea' into Waterstones.com search, it came back with 8007 results.  Scanning through them, there were a small number that had those words in the title but weren't at all related to the sea.

Waterstones. (2011). Search Results: 'The Sea'.
There were alot of book for children; 'Winnine Under the Sea', 'Under the Sea - Sticker Book', 'Five Go Down to the Sea - Famous Five', etc..  But the majority of the books were more mature novels about life at sea, or life by the sea.  There were a fair few Percy Jackson titles.  I noticed that alot of the novels were fiction and clearly included mythical creatures.  There were also a fair number of fishing book and guides, aswell as some factual novels about species of the sea.

I was genuinely surprised at the amount of sea related books.  But however I had correctly predicted that the majority would be fiction novels, with mythical creatures heavily referenced.
There is clearly a large market for books about and to do with the sea.
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Sport

Mark Warner. (2011)
Water Sports.
When I was in year 9 at high school, I went on a school trip to Greece for a watersports holiday.  The resort we went to was fairly good and there was lots to do.  I went back to Greece with my family this year.  We stayed at a large resort across the bay from the resort I went to on the school trip.  Seeing how much the two resorts had improved and grown was astonishing.  They were now huge and very modern and there was twice as much to do than before.
It was a clear sign that watersports and holidays have really been on the increase over the last 7 years.

Roho. (2011)
Jet Ski's, Water Ski's, Wake Boarding, Sailing and Surfing are probably the most popular watersports at the moment.  It isn't a huge sport, but it is fastly growing.  There are competitions all around the world, but it isn't popular enough to be seen on live television yet.

I really enjoy watersports, wake boarding especially, and I can see it becoming a huge sensation in years to come.