James Cameron shared his experience after reaching the deepest part of the ocean, descending to a depth of approximately 35,787 feet.
While Cameron is renowned for directing major films like “Titanic” and the “Avatar” series, he is also known for his achievements as an explorer.
The acclaimed filmmaker, who is now 70 years old, undertook a solo mission in 2012 to achieve a childhood aspiration.
The idea of venturing alone to the ocean’s lowest depths might be intimidating, yet Cameron invested $10 million and several years in the creation of his Deepsea Challenger submersible.
On March 26, 2012, he made a daring dive into the Pacific Ocean, descending the seven-mile-deep Mariana Trench near Guam.
Cameron’s journey to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the trench’s deepest section, lasted nearly three hours, achieving a maximum depth of 35,787 feet (10,908 meters).
To put this in perspective, this is over twice the depth of the Titanic wreckage, which lies 12,500 feet deep (3,800 meters).
Between 1995 and 2005, Cameron completed 33 visits to the Titanic site.
During his exploration of the Mariana Trench, Cameron spent around four hours on the ocean floor, capturing video footage throughout his mission.
He transformed his experience into a documentary titled “James Cameron’s Deep Sea Challenge 3D,” available for free streaming on Plex.
Speaking to BBC News, Cameron described the experience as “absolutely the most remote, isolated place on the planet. I really feel like in one day I’ve been to another planet and come back.”
He characterized the ocean’s depths as “a sterile, almost desert-like place.”
In an interview with NPR journalist Melissa Block, Cameron remarked: “It’s very lunar. You don’t expect a profusion of life, like you might see at, let’s say, a hydrothermal vent community.”
Cameron also took equipment to collect sediment samples from the seabed at such great depths.
“We did find 68 new species, most of them bacteria, but some small invertebrates, as well, that were brought back,” he shared with Block.
Cameron’s journey marked the second manned expedition to the Mariana Trench seafloor since the US Navy submersible Trieste, piloted by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard, in 1960.
Since then, an additional 20 people have reached Challenger Deep, including, in 2021, OceanGate Titan submersible victim Hamish Harding.
Harding, along with four others—OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet—tragically perished on June 18, 2023, during a mission to the Titanic wreckage when the Titan sub imploded at a depth of approximately 10,977 feet.