Free
If you hold your nose and jump into the water for a look, you won’t have time to see much. You’ll have to come up for air soon.
If you wear scuba gear, you could carry an oxygen supply. That lets you stay underwater a lot longer. You might go as deep as 300 feet. Want to go really deep? Wear an atmospheric diving suit, or ADS. That will protect you from water pressure, so you can go down about 2,000 feet.
Want to explore deeper? You’ll need an undersea craft, such as a submarine. To go even deeper, you could use Alvin. Who’s Alvin? A better question is: what’s Alvin? It’s a manned submersible that can go down nearly three miles. Undersea craft have pressure-proof cabins. They can travel much deeper than any diver can.
Ocean explorers have found rich natural resources and foods in the ocean. Some plants and animals can be used to make medicines. They’ve also found new animal species and, of course, shipwrecks.
Ocean exploration brings us lots of interesting information. It may bring us clues to lost civilizations. It may even help us understand the origin of life on Earth.
