Discover an Underwater Ecosystem
Technology brought the study of marine biology to new heights during the twentieth century. In 1934 William Beebe external (1877-1962) and Otis Barton external descended 923 m/3,028 ft below the surface off the coast of Bermuda in a bathysphere external designed and funded by Barton. This depth record was not broken until 1948 when Barton made a bathysphere dive to 1,372 m/4,500 ft. During the interim, Beebe was able to observe deep sea life in its own environment rather than in a specimen jar. Although he was criticized for failing to publish results in professional journals, his vivid descriptions of the bathysphere dives in the books he published inspired some of today’s greatest oceanographers and marine biologists.