Make the invisible visible: the deep sea in outreach, scientific communication and art & science project

What’s hiding in the deep ocean ?  Our understanding of this complex realm and its associated biodiversity is hampered by a lack of fundamental knowledge. Faced with increased human presence, deep-ocean ecosystems are now threatened by emerging activities such as the exploitation of marine mineral resources, the development of blue (bio)technologies but also by cumulative anthropic pressures to its deepest part (global warming, pollution, …). The international scientific? community working on deep-ocean ecosystems recognises that this lack of knowledge can hinder the sustainable use of the ocean and lead to the underestimation of the impacts of a potential exploitation.

In the meantime, the deep ocean is invisible to the general public although it represents the largest biome on Earth and is a key player in carbon sequestration and climate regulation. In order to inform these economic, ecological and societal issues, Ifremer commits to enable the appropriation of current science by different actors of the society, schoolchildren, students, general public, decision-makers, through various approaches based on exchange, practice and arts, rather than just dissemination of scientific information. The outreach tools and actions developed aim to provide citizens and stakeholders with tools to investigate, question what they observe, sharpen their critical thinking and stimulate their curiosity in order to emancipate oneself, and ultimately, to shed light on this hidden part of our planet, the abyss.

Through a few examples, from laboratory guided tours for politicians to citizen science or art & science projects, we will present different actions developed to improve our societies’ perceptions of the deep sea, raise awareness of the environmental and societal issues at stake, and encourage questioning and debate among scientists, artists, citizens, institutions, decision-makers and the future generations.