00:00This is Antarctica's Southern Ocean.
00:02It's one of the coldest, harshest places on the planet.
00:05Above the water, it's freezing.
00:07But below the surface, there's a world we're only just starting to understand.
00:22Often called the ocean's twilight zone,
00:25the mesophortic zone stretches roughly from 30 to 200 meters below sea level.
00:29Just about 1% of the sun's rays penetrate down here.
00:33But life is abundant.
00:34These are marine animal forests that thrive in these low-light depths.
00:39And they're completely different from anything we see in shallow water or the deep sea.
00:43Home to countless rare and vulnerable marine species,
00:46researchers say these forests are among the most biodiverse habitats in the ocean.
00:50But getting here is not easy.
00:52At these depths, pressure increases, temperature drops,
00:55and divers can only rely on complex machines such as these.
00:59It's not very studied.
01:01And this is the reason why we go to this zone here.
01:05These advanced systems let them stay underwater longer
01:08and move silently without disturbing marine life.
01:11To understand how these ecosystems work,
01:13especially their connectivity with low-light depths ecosystems,
01:17but also the very specific diversity that they characterize.
01:20It's really important to be able to put in place
01:23protected marine airs or conservation zones
01:25that are adapted to the specificity of these ecosystems.
01:28The goal is simple.
01:29Researchers want to use this data
01:30to protect these fragile zones before they disappear.
01:33And we're only just beginning to see what's at stake.
01:35Yeah.
01:37None.
01:38Time
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