Why James Cameron is arguing with a fellow millionaire about who dove to the deepest point in the ocean
Keipher McKennie / WireImage / Getty
In September, film director James Cameron contacted The New York Times, disgruntled by a declaration made by millionaire adventurer Victor Vescovo, that claimed he had completed the deepest submarine dive in history.
Vescovo had dived down to the Mariana Trench, off the coast of Guam — the same area Cameron had dived down to seven years earlier.
What irked Cameron was that the area is flat, according to what he and another expedition both saw, meaning it should have been impossible to go any deeper.
Yet Vescovo was claiming he'd gone 52 feet deeper. He also told Business Insider he'd be returning in 2020 to hopefully settle the dispute, once and for all.
Academy Award winning director James Cameron does not seem to like to be upstaged.
In September, Cameron took issue when fellow millionaire adventurer Victor Vescovo declared he had completed the deepest submarine dive in history.
The dive was down to a trough called Challenger Deep, which Cameron also dove down to seven years earlier. Cameron questioned Vescovo's claim since he and earlier divers had found the area to be flat. He argued that this meant it should have been impossible to go any deeper. Yet Vescovo claimed he'd gone 52 feet further.
What followed, as the two wealthy men disagreed via the headlines of international media companies, is a little unusual.
Here's what happened.
This strange argument between two wealthy "gentleman explorers" began when Cameron emailed The New York Times with the subject "Request to Speak."
Gabe Ginsberg / WireImage / Getty
Sources: The New York Times, Vulture
Cameron is famous for directing box-office hits like "Titanic", "The Terminator", and "Avatar". He's also known for his environmental activism and deep sea diving.
Jon Furniss / WireImage / Getty
Sources: Popular Science, Vulture
Cameron has made several films and documentaries about the sea, as well as regularly deep-sea diving himself. He's plunged two miles down to visit the wreck of the Titanic 33 times.
James Croucher / Newspix / Getty
Source: The New York Times
In 2012, Cameron descended almost 7 miles in a mini-submarine to touch down on Challenger Deep. His aim was to take photos and find samples of deep sea fauna.
Mark Thiessen / National Geographic
Sources: Wired, The New York Times
Challenger Deep is a trough on the Mariana trench, which is the deepest part of the world's oceans, located in the western Pacific off the coast of Guam.
Wikimedia
Source: The New York Times
Cameron wasn't the first to reach it. That was achieved in 1960, by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard, two men in the US Navy. The pair spent 20 minutes down below, but couldn't take any photos, as their submarine stirred up too much of the seafloor.
Bettmann / Getty
Sources: The Guardian, The New York Times
When Cameron went, he spent three hours exploring the trough. He said he was struck by how lunar the landscape was.
Visual China Group / Getty
Sources: Wired, The New York Times
After his success, The New York Times' William J. Broad wrote that his dive signaled "the rising importance of entrepreneurs in the global race to advance science and technology."
Mark Thiessen/National Geographic/Handout
Sources: Wired, The New York Times
One of those entrepreneurs, on the other side of this public feud, is multi-millionaire Victor Vescovo. The Guardian described him as "desperate to prove himself as the world's 'ultimate explorer'"
Mike Marsland / Getty for Omega
Source: The Guardian
He's climbed the highest peak on every continent, including Everest, and skied over the North and South poles. But this might be the first time he's had a disagreement make international headlines.
Wikimedia
Sources: The New York Times, Insight Equity
In April 2019, Vescovo also successfully completed a dive to Challenger Deep. He and his team dove down three times and spent 10 hours on the seafloor.
Reeve Jolliffe / Five Deep Expedition
Sources: Wired, The New York Times
The dive was part of a $48 million attempt to dive to the deepest point in five oceans, which he's since completed.
Five Deeps Expedition
Source: The New York Times
After the dive, Vescovo's press release had the headline, "Deepest Submarine Dive in History."
Wikimedia
Sources: Five Deeps, The New York Times
What set Cameron on fire is that Vescovo said he descended 35,853 feet, which is 52 feet deeper than Cameron went in 2012.
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic / Getty
Source: Wired, The New York Times
But Cameron said he couldn't have gone deeper, because the bottom was "flat and featureless." So even if Vescovo's gauge was different from Cameron's, the director said it wasn't correct. "I question that result," he told Wired. "I also question why nobody else has questioned that result."
Tommaso Boddi / Getty for AMC
Sources: Wired, The New York Times
Cameron isn't alone with this conclusion. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution also explored the area in 2009.
Sonya Senkowsky / AP
Sources: The New York Times, Popular Science
The group sent down a robot, and Andy Bowen, who led the expedition, said it was like the Utah desert. He also said Vescovo's claim of finding a deeper part was unlikely.
Five Deeps Expedition
Sources: The New York Times, Popular Science
Vescovo responded to Cameron's questions by saying he had better, newer equipment that gave more accurate readings of the ocean's depth.
Tamara Stubbs / Five Deeps Expedition
Source: The New York Times
"I have enormous respect for him," Vescovo told The Times. "On this point, however, I scientifically disagree."
Tamara Stubbs / Limiting Factor
Source: The New York Times
It's difficult to say for certain who is right, because it's hard to measure an exact depth. Strong ocean currents mean traditional measuring by a cable is impossible.
Five Deeps Expedition
Instead it's done by sound or pressure, taking into account things like gravity. But even with the best technology, there will be a margin of error.
Five Deeps Expedition
Source: Wired
In September, Vescovo's figure was lowered by 13 feet, to 35,840 feet. This still has Vescovo as having gone deeper.
Wikimedia
Source: The New York Times
Vescovo's crew also estimated the margin of error for his dive could be up to 70 feet.
Reeve Jolliffe / Five Deeps Expedition
Source: The New York Times
Vescovo said the difference of 50 feet was "splitting hairs" when the real focus should have been about the fact they'd both descended down over 35,000 feet. But that's easy for Vescovo to say, when he's the one who's recorded going deeper.
Wikimedia
Source: Wired
And it clearly matters to Cameron. He told Popular Science, "At the risk of sounding like sour grapes, it's important for the public to know that the one deepest point in our world’s oceans is a flat, featureless plain."
Paul Morigi / Getty
Source: Popular Science
Regardless of who went deeper, as Mark Zumberge, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told Popular Science, the answer isn't a big deal for everyone. "There's not a great scientific interest in how the ocean floor varies in a few meters," he said.
James Croucher / Newspix / Getty
Sources: The Guardian, Popular Science
Both men agree that the most important thing to take from all of this is that the ocean's depths are under-appreciated, and scientists need more funding to be able to properly study them.
Five Deeps Expedition
Source: Wired
But Vescovo also told Business Insider he'd be returning to Challenger Deep in 2020 to dive several more times to hopefully resolve their disagreement, once and for all.
Five Deeps Expedition
