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Historic Expedition Plumbs Depths of ‘The Real North Pole’
3rd August 2007
The first ever submersible dives to the ocean floor at the Geographic North Pole were successfully completed today. The expedition is the first in which humans have visited ‘The Real North Pole’ which lies over 4,261 metres (13,980ft) beneath the thick cover of permanent polar sea ice.
Deep Ocean Expeditions founder, Australian adventurer Mike McDowell and European businessmen Frederik Paulsen were among the six submariners who made the historic dive.
“We are happy and relived to be safely back aboard our mothership Akademik Fedorov after our 9 1/2 hour dive today. Whilst on the ocean floor directly at the North Pole we witnessed many small slow moving fish, multiple coloured anemones and jelly fish. Our landing on the pole was also over 200 metres deeper than first thought, at 4,261 metres,” McDowell said.
The dives are a significant addition to the history of polar exploits, and mark one of the “last of the remaining firsts” of geographic exploration.
The two Russian extreme-depth Mir submersibles dived through a specially constructed hole in the polar sea-ice on a mission dubbed a “mixture of science and exploration”
The dive operation was commanded by Chief Pilot Dr Anatoly Sagalevitch and supported by his world-renowned submersible team from the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russia.
Dr Sagalevitch piloted Mir I and Genya Cherniaev piloted Mir II when the submersibles descended together on the 8-hour dive today.
Mike McDowell, Dr Sagalevitch and colleagues (including well-known Trieste submersible pilot Captain Don Walsh) conceived and designed the expedition in the late 1990’s.
The expedition was led by Artur Chilingarov, a senior figure in the Russian parliament. Dr Chilingarov was also one of the submersible occupants during the historical dive. Also on board is New Zealand marine biologist Peter Batson of Dunedin.
“The skill and expertise of our pilot Genya Cherniaev enabled us to ascend right beneath the icebreaker. As we ascended we were able to see the powerful HMI underwater lights hung specially for navigation purposes on ascent. They guided us back to the very small opening in the ice cap, made earlier by the nuclear icebreaker and kept open by the propeller wash of the vessel, McDowell said.
“Due to the nature of diving beneath thick ice there were times during the dive we had no communications and navigational information from the surface but the MIR Submergence team from the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology did a magnificent job of managing the dive operation and covering all safety and logistical aspects of the dive.”
The project was part of Russia’s contribution to the 2007/2008 International Polar Year activities.
The submersibles, among the deepest diving manned underwater vehicles in the world, were extensively modified to enable the dives to take place.
The 250-person expedition departed the atomic port of Murmansk, Northern Russia on July 24th 2007.
Two large icebreakers, the polar support vessel Akademik Fedorov and the nuclear powered icebreaker Rossiya supported the expedition, breaking the ice and transporting the submersibles and crew to their launch site.
Each three-person submersible returned to the surface with biological samples, confirming the existence of life in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.