Canadian director James Cameron takes ocean’s deepest dive

James Cameron – the famous Canadian director known for his massive hits Titanic and Avatar – has set a record for the deepest solo dive, when after seven years of planning, he explored the Marina Trench.

The Trench is 7 miles below the surface of the Western Pacific, and the only other people to have made the journey were U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and the late Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard, who spent 20 minutes there together in 1960. Walsh served as a mentor and part of the surface support team for Cameron on this dive.

Cameron, 57, spoke to reporters in a telephone conference call from a yacht heading back to shore after he safely surfaced from his voyage to the floor of the undersea canyon.

He called the expedition “the culmination of a lifelong dream.”

“Most people probably know me as a filmmaker, but really the ocean and the idea of exploration has been the stronger driver in my life,” he said.

He noted a flat and desolate landscape – 50 times larger than the Grand Canyon – that was devoid of sunlight, heat and warmth,  with pressure so high it squeezed his submarine by several inches.

When I got to the bottom … it was completely featureless and uniform. My feeling was one of complete isolation from all of humanity. … More than anything, (it’s) realizing how tiny you are down in this big, vast, black, unknown and unexplored place,” he said.

The only swimming creatures he witnessed were small shrimp-like arthropods, no other life forms were visible. He noted further exploration would be necessary to get a full grasp on the organisms existing down there.

When asked if he encountered anything he might use in his next film, he dodged the question, saying “Anything that I’ve ever seen underwater goes into the hopper of imagination that gets refracted out into the things that I write.”

The seven hour journey was not a comfortable one, as he was wedged into a cold, cramped capsule at the bottom of a 24 foot tall submarine that descended upright and rotated 500 feet per minute.

Watch a video clip of his excursion below:

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Cameron has made 72 ocean dives in various submersible crafts since he first took up diving at the age of 16 – including 12 trips to the Titanic shipwreck during his making of the blockbuster film.

Titanic is being re-released in 3-D for the 100th anniversary of the tragedy that happened on April 15, 1912.

He has denied suggestions that the re-release is a way to cash in on the tragedy that took more than 1,500 lives.

“I just think it makes it more immersive. It kind of turns up the experience to 11 instead of 10,” he told reporters at the world premiere held at London’s Royal Albert Hall. “There’s always going to be people that can piss in the soup of anything good, but frankly I think that remembering Titanic, remembering the history — that’s what the film was there for. That’s why I made it, you know?”

“I was fascinated by the story, I was fascinated by the history, the people that were heroic, the people that lost their lives. I was genuinely touched by the tragedy when I was there at the wreck,” he continued. “I think the film is a good focusing agent for that at this time when we should be remembering the wreck and its message, the disaster and its message for all of us.”

His Mariana Trench expedition is being chronicled for a 3-D film set for theatrical release as well as broadcast on National Geographic.

Sources: Reuters, Macleans

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