The Blue Hole of Belize is extraordinarily beautiful when it is seen from the above. It looks heavenly with a sapphire pool full of warm turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. Once you get closer to it, the enormity of its depth can be seen clearly.
Business mogul Sir Richard Branson and Jacques Cousteau’s explorer grandson Fabien Cousteau led a team of scientists and conservationists in order to explore the depths of this pool and to map them properly. Yet, what they discovered at the bottom of the Blue Hole was rather was rather terrifying.
1. Quest To The Caribbean
Fabien Cousteau is a world famous deep-sea explorer who has a passion for ocean conservation. He has done all things like investigating underwater Civil War shipwrecks and recording sharks up personally on numerous times. However, one specific mission he did recently was an exceptional plangency for him and dared his expectations.
He cruised for the west coast of the Caribbean Sea, in the tropical Central American nation of Belize in 2018. Hew was intending to explore the well-known Blue Hole, the largest oceanic sinkhole in the world and its menacing depths. His explorations would terrify the scientific world.
2. Extraordinary Ecosystem
The Belize Barrier Reef contains a large slab of Mesoamerican Barrier Reed system, is located away from the shores of the Central American nation. It outstretches from Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula southward to Honduras and it is the second largest reef network on the planet, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
A world-renowned naturalist Charles Darwin had claimed that it was “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies” while traveling through the vicinity in 1842. The Blue Hole stays yawning at the center of the reef and the deep indigo water of the Blue Hole highlights itself from the fleet water of the reef which is surrounding it. At a first glance, it is obvious that what Darwin said was not a hyperbole.
3. Tantalizing Depths
At the center of Lighthouse Reef in the eastern-bound part of the Belize Barrier Reef, the Blue Hole is an intuitive lodestone for scuba divers who are much curious about what precisely is there at the bottom of the 420-foot drop. Yet, it’s far from any dangers; divers should finish minimum 24 dives before they totally thrust.
This massive gaping underwater sinkhole is spacious enough to hold two Boeing 747 planes, with remaining space as well. An observer who has a burning curiosity only would dare to squint into the darkness of its depths. The unknown gloomy with a formidable dropoff is questionable for everyone who has seen on the Blue Hole that what mysteries and monsters could skulk beneath.
4. Family Affair
This mission was special for Fabien Cousteau as it holds a personal plangency. Jacques Cousteau, grandfather of Fabien Couteau was a world-renowned French oceanographer who had become the most famous and well-beloved deep sea explorer. It is in 1971 that he had come to the Blue Hole claiming that it was to be one of the five diving spots on Earth.
Yet, the equipment he had then were not advanced enough in contrast to the tools that his grandson has now and thus he had only gone for a brief peek. Now, it was time to more thoroughly map and explore its depths. Also, Fabien had another fabled person at his side on the mission.
5. Virgin Voyage
It was epochal for English business mogul and conservationist Sir Richard Branson to join with Fabien Cousteau on his expedition to the Blue Hole of Belize. The magnate of the Virgin Group was interested in leading the investigative mission to the bottom of the Blue Hole and to explore its depths rigorously by himself in the team’s submersible.
Sir Richard and Cousteau got ready to make the voyage in their trustworthy vehicle, the Aquatica submarine jointly with their main pilot and oceanographer Erika Bergman. Everyone was enlivened to know more about the nature of the Blue Hole. They had no idea about through what they would go in its murking deep.
6. Environmental Mission
Sir Richard Branson was famous for putting his position as a billionaire for a good course. He is a public figure who assists in awareness of climatic changes and methods to fight it by creating a more viable planet for future generations. He held conference as well on global warming at his own private residence in the British Virgin Islands.
The tycoon made an announcement in 2006 that he would especially grant the dividend from his airline and train empire towards fighting global warming. It was a huge amount of money around $ 3 billion. It is because of his passion towards the environment that he had taken part in the Aquatica submarine mission to the bottom of the Blue Hole off the coast of Belize ..
7. A Wave Of Media Coverage
The mission into the Blue Hole of Belize was no similar to any other excursion. This was to be the abstruse adventure that any scientific team had made into the sinkhole before. Even though it was not the deepest point in the vicinity or the world’s largest aquatic sinkhole, the unplumbed interior left tempting questions about its geological and biological history.
Sir Richard Branson had named the mission as “planetary inner peace”. As all the participants of this mission had a high side view, they were only curious about the surrounding. They dived more into the deep of the Blue Hole that was live-streamed across the world on the Discovery Channel. The submarine moved with cameras rolling The enthusiasm was perceptible.
8. Cozy Ride
As there was no underwater expedition had been done after the one done by Titanic director James Cameron into the Mariana Trench, this Blue Hole mission attracted coverage and excitement by the celebrity of the submersible, s acclaimed passengers. There was a massive dome over the top of the Aquatica submarine facilitating the interior views overhead, to their side, in front, and behind.
The team of underwater explorers started to go around the walls of the Blue Hole after diving around for 10 minutes. It was seen like the side of a crater which was hollowed by the impact of a celestial body from the images broadcast from their excursion. But as it got more closer, they realized that the Blue Hole had been created by totally different forces.
9. Cave Formations
As the submarine headed more towards the bottom of the Blue Hole, the visibility of underwater started to squander. But soon enough the formation revealed to them an apparent testimony to the geological processes that had shaped it. The whole complex of hanging cave stalactites was clearly visible from the light beamed from the Aquatica.
The existences of these dangling developments must be conceivable in a structure that had some time ago been arranged on dry land and made through the trickling of water into a cavern. So how had this cavern structure, around 43 miles east of any dry land, wound up lowered underneath more than 400 feet of sea?
10. An Ominous Warning
In Sir Richard Branson’s own words, seeing cave stalactites underwater was, “One of the starkest reminders of the danger of climate change” that he had ever seen. The cause for this had come in the repercussions of a giant ice melt at the end of the last major Ice Age.
Sea levels in the Caribbean had come up in an exhilarating way that they inundated extensive whacks of land. At 300 feet underneath the surface, Branson saw the move in the shading and variety of the arrangement, obviously delineating what rock had been framed submerged and what rock above land. The repercussions of these powers had not stayed submerged.
11. Mineral Layers
A team of researchers arrived to the vicinity from Louisiana State University and Rice University several years before Sir Richard Branson, Erika Bergman, and Fabien Cousteau dived into the sinkhole of the Blue Hole of Belize. Their mission was totally different- to document the chemical composition of its walls.
Their aim was to find out whether there was a connection between the Blue Hole and the decline of a civilization on the land in Belize. They picked up samples of sediments from the Blue Hole, which could be dated back to between 800 and 1000 CE. Their outcome was potential enough to answer one of the history’s greatest mysteries.
12. Decline Of Civilization
The indigenous residents of Belize and the surrounding countries had been the Maya civilization. Archaeologists, historians and scientists have been bewildered as to find the reason why the Maya suddenly started to abandon the cities they had built. The answer why their empires collapsed mystifying way could have been their in the Blue Hole.
The examples from the Blue Hole dregs indicated anomalous low degrees of titanium and aluminum, components typically exhausted of rock and into the water by hurricanes. This implied the time of the Maya decrease had likely been set apart by a horrible dry season. In any case, what was at the base of the Blue Hole would check an undeniably increasingly present day cataclysm.
13. The Dead Zone
Fabien Cousteau and the team found something deadly near the bottom of the Blue Hole that no creature ought to have been able to survive; a layer of hydrogen sulfide, 20 feet thick.This was the ideal space to try-out one of the submersible’s state-of-the-art technologies before they outstretch their ultimate goal.
They measure the oxygen and observed the water’s quality. There were cadavers of many crabs, conches and other organisms beneath the hydrogen sulfide wall who might have banged into the wall of hydrogen sulfide, stuck in it and ran out of oxygen. Yet, there was something more terrifying up ahead.
14. Base Level
Consequently, after passing through the test pattern of the hydrogen sulfide sheet, the submarine of the researched team was able to reach the bottom of the Blue Hole. It was rather thrilling for Fabien Cousteau as he managed to carry on what his grandfather had started almost half a century before.
All on board were anxious to perceive what the base of the opening resembled. They would at long last have the option to appropriately delineate regions of this enormous land inconsistency. In spite of the fact that it was obvious to them that nothing would have the option to endure the hydrogen sulfite cover, they were going to find something that’d leave them with apprehension.
15. Underwater War Zone
Cousteau and his team found out how fake the appearances can be as they mapped out out the bottom of Belize’s Blue Hole. The Blue Hole can be seen as a beautiful and unblemished peculiarity of nature. The calamitous reality was revealed on its muddy floor that the Blue Hole was entirely full of figures that were not easily perceptible at first.
They encountered masses of pollution as the submarine cleansed the sea bed. Empty bottled has been covered the bottom of the Blue hole. Having no idea what they found initially, the mission ultimately found another sufferer of human consumption . an underwater garbage dump. The team members were upset and disgusted. Sir Richard Branson had an absolute idea about what had to be done.
16. Real Monsters
The initial goal of mapping out the Blue Hole now had changed to a harsh reminder of the demolition that plastic had inflicted on the planet. It turned out to be that there were no monsters down there at the base of the Blue Hole apart from the ones that human beings had created: polllution.
Sir Richard Branson was stimulated to take necessary actions. First, he had partnered the expedition with Ocean Unite, a conglomerate of conservationists from all position with a goal set to promote awareness of the condition of the ocean. they had a way substantial and considerable aim than just the Blue Hole could accommodate.
17. Longterm Goals
The goal of Sir Richard Branson and Ocean Unite’s is to separate at least a 30 percent of world oceans to be regarded as a protected area with legal consequences for damaging it. Their assumption is to go to this goal by 2030. To do that, Sir Richard had to fight against pollution wherever he faced it.
Before the terrifying discovery in the Blue Hole, he met with the Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow and his wife, upon arrival in Belize. The tycoon anticipated to convince him to place ten percent of Belize’s national territorial waters under protection, and to prohibit grill nets that vandalize marine ecosystems and a big thing was already processing.
18. Hope For The Future
The research was in need of some good news after such a terrible discovering. In brief, they knew that nothing happened, yet if they don’t take necessary actions soon, they knew that the discarded plastic and other human-generated waste products would definitely would swamped out for the remaining part of the reef, risking the survival of ecosystem’s survival.
Gratefully it seemed that changes were coming along quickly when they were back on land. The Prime Minister of Belize had decided to be supportive of Sir Richard Branson’s proposal. They left the meeting with him with a burning expectation that he would make a riveting announcement about the matter before the new year. The PM’s wife is also a avowed supporter of ocean conservation. And Branson himself took a courageous step.
19. Implementing Change
Stimulated by what he had seen retching the base of the Blue Hole, Sir Richard Branson knew he had to take necessary steps, starting with the way he managed his own businesses. Branson’s airline companies under his administration and leadership have now vowed themselves to stop using single-use plastic on board their flights.
Branson chas claimed that he’s looking with profound concern toward the future, noting that his grandchildren will be in their thirties in 2050 and can’t tolerate imagining them in a future withou coral and other wonder the ocean contains. Belize has pledged to terminate single-use plastic during 2019. but this mission to Belize was far from the first time that Branson had vowed himself to saving the environment.
20. Earth On His Mind
Sir Richard Branson has either chipped in himself as a contributing part or the organizer of a generous number of good cause and NGOs identified with conservation of nature. First off, he has started a battle to put aside a whole island in the Caribbean for boosting the number of inhabitants in the most-cherished of Madagascar’s lemur species, the imperiled ring-followed lemur.
Alongside the motivations he has created for his organizations to be more earth neighborly, for example, the yearly Special Award for Environment, Sir Richard additionally is a key part in the association OceanElders. The gathering of compelling craftsmen and VIPs is committed to raising ecological mindfulness with assistance from any semblance of Neil Young and Jackson Browne to Fabien Cousteau’s own dad Jean-Michel. However, what are huge names doing about the issue found in the Blue Hole?
21. Plastic Problems
This amount of plastic waste human beings have created, as proved by the sobering finding at the base of the Blue Hole of Belize, is one of the massive environmental disasters facing the earth. Some of the world famous, most lovable public figures counting Hollywood A-list actors have vowed to join the combat.
Soon after the huge success of his film, Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio began to his name namesake Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation with the express objectives of catering and strengthening organizations devoted to environment work. Weeding out non-essential plastic usage by 2035 is done by one branch of his foundation which is know as the Plastic Solutions Fund. With expectations, starpower will see to it that the Blue Hole in Belize is Properly cleaned. Yet, a different Blue Hole encounters a doubly menacing problem in Egypt.
22. Tropical And Dazzling
The Red Sea is the northernmost tropical sea on the planet expanding from Israel in the north to Yemen in the South. It is a noteworthy hotspot of biodiversity, and extensive ammunition of reef make it waters, specifically along the Sinai Peninsula a total must-visit for any diving fanatic.
To the north side of seaside tourist paradise of Dahab, Egypt, reclines one of the Red Sea region’s most popular and infamous natural wonders. The Sinai Peninsula has its own Blue hole, and even though it is smaller a little than its equivalent across the globe in Belize, its reputation comes before it.
23. Easily Accessible
To reach the Blue Hole of Sinai, taking a long boat ride out from shore is not necessary like to the Blue Hole of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Verily, it can be reached effortlessly from the rocky shores of the beach. Yet, in spite of how close it is to land, appearances can be tricky.
Situated in the middle of the the coral reef, the Blue Hole displays its own extreme drop-off point before the entry to the deeper waters of open sea. And based on what entry points divers may utilize to enter it, the Blue Hole could possibly be his or her last swim.
24. The Arch
The paramount rationale why the Blue Hole is no famously dangerous lien in a structure known by professionals as “The Arch.” This is a tunnel under the coral reef that combines the waters of the Blue Hole to the Red Sea itself, on the other side of the reef.
As there is no seen monster in the Blue Hole of Sinai’s depths, an imperceptible presence stalks and distracts divers, trawling them down to their deaths. This occurrence is called nitrogen narcosis, which describes the changeable effects f depths on the awareness of the diver. Irrespective of how prepared and experienced the diver may be, the effects on a diver can be disastrous.
25. Fatal Attraction
The Arch can be seen way shorter than it really is, because of underwater illusions and perceptions of distance along distracting divers more. Besides, nitrogen narcosis can result in hallucinations. Regardless of how contributing the factor is, on;y the most experienced divers are allowed in the Blue Hole and there is a reason behind it.
The Blue Hole in Sinai is regarded potentially the most threatening diving site in the world. It is estimated that around 200 people have gone its waters and did not come out alive. It stays one of the most alluringly wonderful common locales in the area, stunning from above, savage from underneath, yet it might likewise be vulnerable to the man-made perils of toxins that prowl on the close by shores.
26. You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide
Even being the deepest point the ocean, the Mariana Trench is still not safe from man-made plastic pollutants. Mariana Trench is situated remotely stretching 36,000 feet down of the Pacific Ocean and is lashed by the hand of man with nothing except for plastic bags. Indeed, the ones we use at the grocery store!
Plastic had its voyage to 36,000 feet deep and claimed its place no matter how remote and deep the trench is. As part of Deep-Sea Debris Database, scientists spotted the waste with a collection of photos and videos captured by 5,010 divers over the last three decades.
Despite how remote and deep this trench is, plastic has made a 36,000 feet trip and claimed its place. Scientists marked the waste with a collection of photos and videos captured by 5,010 divers over the last three decades as part of the Deep-Sea Debris Database.
27. The Ugly Truth
Plastic is more common, especially the plastic bags out of all the waste that the Deep-Sea Debris Database recorded over the years. Other waste materials are wood, metal, rubber, and cloth and some of them has not yet categorized. Despondently, around 89 percent of all the plastic identified is single-use plastic like disposable utensils and water bottles.
Moreover, the Mariana Trench hosts more life than you would imagine, even though it might appear deep, gloomy and remote. In fact, species like octopus, jellyfish and even coral was recorder by the explorer vessel which which was sent down the trench in 2016. Yet, there is even more bad news.
28. A Dangerous Interaction
NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer found out that species live in the Mariana trench are in directly harm’s way. 17 percent of the images taken of the plastic show that some of these beings get tangles in the plastic debris and face to deaths and suffocation.
The squeezing question is the place precisely is this plastic originating from if the channel is so far expelled from human advancement? All things considered, its an obvious fact that plastic contamination is an overall marvel, so it’s just intelligent that the contamination escapes into the profundities of the seas without separating, seeing that solitary use plastics enjoy many years to reprieve down. It appears as though no spot on earth is insusceptible to plastic contamination, and another investigation made a frightening disclosure.
29. Pollution Travels Fast
It was revealed through a recent study conducted in the Mariana Trench that its level of pollution is higher than some of the most polluted rivers in China. Now, that is difficult to accept. Also, it was found out through this study that the trench may have become extremely polluted from the breakdown of the plastic in the vicinity.
The reasons why our oceans and seas are being fed so much plastic pollution are the pollutant directly enters the ocean from trash on the beach or from ships and for the rivers that directly into the sea. Polluted rivers that flow through highly populated regions ultimately fall in to seas, thus there is no method to stop the plastic from reaching regions like Mariana Trench.
30. A Banal Object
Without considering it to an extreme, basic plastics disposed of from ships just as disposed of angling gear are likewise a significant wellspring of plastic contamination in the seas. It’s the dull articles for people that are unleashing destruction in the seas and pulverizing the characteristic natural surroundings of marine life and creatures.
An investigation distributed in 2017 found that angling gear made up the main part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is the size of Texas, skimming among California and Hawaii. This equitable shows how the degree of control man has over the planet, and similarly as fast as we are decimating it, we can take steps to spare it.
31. Man Made Fibers
Plastic waste trap not only kills and suffocate ocean beings, it also enters their stomachs and bloodstream causing severe innuendos for both animals and human beings. Scientists have discovered that man made fibers and plastics have pierced the stomachs of marine life, even though they live at the deepest point of the ocean.
The dark reality is that human waste has spread all over the world’s oceans even to distant vicinity. Scientists from Newcastle University conducted tests of crustaceans that inhabit the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,980 meters below sea level. Every crustacean had devoured some sort of man made materials including PVA, PVC, plastics and nylon. Yet, you may wonder how does this affect humans.
32. The Cycle
It is reasonable to think that this plastic enters our own digestive systems after we eat fish, crustaceans and other sea creatures if they ingest man made plastics. “There were instances where the fibers could actually be seen in the stomach contents as they were being removed,” marine ecology professor and the study’s lead Dr. Alan Jamieson said.
Dr. Jamieson claimed that the results of this study were “immediate and startling,” and described how to study the most remote places on Earth just foregrounds how grave the situation is. Deep marine beings eat anything and they depend on food and so if human beings keep on feeding the marine resources with plastic waste, these creatures will devour them at an accelerating rate.
33. Trapped
When plastic waste and litter arrive at the remote ocean floor, there is no place else for it to go, and hence the marine life possessing this profundities of the sea will expend them. The measure of waste additionally continues becoming greater and greater on the grounds that it can’t separate or move somewhere else.
“This is a very worrying find. Isolating plastic fibers from inside animals from nearly 11km deep just shows the extent of the problem,” Dr. Jamieson said about the results of the results of the study. “This is global,” he emphasized. Plastic waste is everywhere: in the middle of the Pacific, in the Arctic, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and even inside sea animals and sea birds. It’s even in the tap water, table salt, and beer than man consumes.
34. Worrying Statistics
Researches which were done regarding waste have claimed that over eight million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans every single year. Experts have estimated that by 20150 there will be more plastic than fish with an amount of 300 million tons of plastic releasing to seas.
According to Polisano, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, the oceans contain around 51 trillion microplastic particles, which is 500 ties more than the quantity of starts in our cosmic system. These poisons are gravely hurting more than 600 species around the globe, which will most presumably prompt the 6th mass elimination on Earth in the event that we don’t act quick.
35. Moving Forward
The numbers and information about plastic waste don’t lie, yet it is just people who can turn these numbers around. All things considered, seas are the wellspring of every one of our needs, so it bodes well to deal with them. On the off chance that we keep on rewarding the seas like a huge dump yard, at that point things can just deteriorate, however there is a silver coating.
All of us can contribute to reduce plastic waste with eight simple steps. The first is to reduce our dependency on single-use plastics like plastic bags, straws, plastic utensils, and packaging. With that comes the second one not to supports producers, industries, and companies who insist on using single-use plastics.Assist industries who use biodegradable plastics. To fine on people who use polluting plastic to refrain people from using them is the third one. Other steps that human beings can take are expanding waste administration, research, tidy up, and reconnaissance funds and resources just as to quit dumping plastic in the seas.