What's really down in the deep

Video Description

Go to https://ground.news/howtown to unlock perspectives beyond media bias and stay informed with the facts. Subscribe through our link for 40% off unlimited access. To support independent science journalism JOIN OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/Howtown TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@howtown_ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtown_videos/ This video was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with IMI. https://sloan.org/ https://www.theimi.co/ Check out Johnny's episode on the fascinating fight over deep sea mining: https://youtu.be/TacQgNeoPMM We're grateful for the generous support of the Patreon Town Council: Bev Fong Chris Wubbels Sean Barrett Mike Purvis Jon Hewett Albychen Hernando Garcia Sean Talon Evan Hass Mark Tinker Julian Mayorga L.A. O’Connor Marcos Huerta Joaquim Salles Sam Gaty Jason Dunlap Parag Mallick Edgar Sutawika Richard Gladas Tim Davey Scott Henderson Navneet Tra Him Taylor Pedro ZM Ale Andrew Paschall Martin Weeks Dimi Bryce Golden-Chen Estelle Caswell Yashaswi Narasimha martin david Marc Hermes AI was used in this piece to animate some archival illustrations and style others. ASK US A QUESTION https://www.howtown.co/contact SELECTED SOURCES An overview of biodiversity in the CCZ https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00534-1 That deep sea mining study with surprising CIA roots: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08921-3 And some interesting background: https://blogs.noc.ac.uk/jc241-smartex/prologue-smartex Full source list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11rv4InYD-wZ9Z_E5nT45oMjx1Pg4t30NbZi1OEqbMmg/edit?usp=sharing INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/howtown_videos FREE NEWSLETTER: https://www.patreon.com/Howtown SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGudGqToOw9hWGR88W9Jutg?sub_confirmation=1 Chapters: 00:00 The sunken treasure 01:43 the abyss - a desert? 02:00 how big is the abyss 03:31 trillion $ trove 04:20 get a hang o’ these 05:30 methods 07:29 empire of poop 07:49 water column critters 08:40 seamount critters 9:13 gummy squirrels 9:30 angry prawn 10:06 walking squid 10:19 mystery holes 10:49 ping pong sponge 11:33 the unnamed 12:04 accumulation curves 13:15 we don’t know much 14:00 secret CIA project 15:21 deep sea mining 16:53 is it worth it? 18:01 johnny harris 19:00 rules for mining 21:12 sea shanty The deep sea is Earth's final frontier — and in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, scientists are discovering thousands of strange, unnamed species living on the ocean floor everywhere time they drop down a camera. But this alien wilderness is under threat. As Johnny Harris explains in his video on deep-sea mining geopolitics, there's a global race to extract metals from this fragile ecosystem. In this episode, we dive into the cutting-edge science behind exploring the abyss — from ROVs and eDNA — and ask: what happens when industry collides with a world we barely understand?