Transparent-faced fish glide through the murky depths, snow-like detritus drifts from above, and soft sponges emerge from the seafloor’s soot.
This mesmerizing glimpse into the South Atlantic’s deep sea has unexpectedly captivated Argentines.
Researchers operating a remotely controlled vehicle, filming life 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) beneath the surface, have admitted they never anticipated their unusual deep-sea mission would become a social media phenomenon.
Their live video feed has garnered over 1.6 million daily views on YouTube, dominated national television news, and even ignited a significant public debate regarding the defunding of Argentine scientific research under the libertarian President Javier Milei.
“It was a huge surprise for us,” said expedition leader Daniel Lauretta.
“It’s something that fills our hearts because we want to spread the word.”
Equipped with high-definition cameras and advanced sensors, the autonomous robot is, for the first time, revealing the enigmatic organisms of Mar de Plata’s submarine canyon with unprecedented clarity and intricate detail.
The region, where the warm current from Brazil meets the cold current coming up from the Falkland Islands, is known for its little-studied biodiversity.
In dives lasting around eight hours a day, the camera encounters an array of surprising creatures lurking in the inky depths off the coast of Buenos Aires: An orange starfish so bright it drew comparisons to Patrick of “SpongeBob SquarePants” cartoon fame, a sea cucumber viewers nicknamed “sweet potato,” a deep sea crab that looked like a hairy spider.
“The colors, the zoom capability – that really amazed me,” Lauretta said. “I think that feeling reached the public too.”
Often peaking at some 50,000 simultaneous viewers, the livestream from the deep-sea research vessel kicked off last week and runs until Aug. 10.
Argentine researchers and American experts from the nonprofit of former Google CEO Eric E. Schmidt, the Schmidt Ocean Institute Foundation, use the vehicle to map the underwater gorge, collect samples and identify scores of new species at a depth below the reach of sunlight, where scientists have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding marine life.
Few viewers have been able to resist the impulse to anthropomorphize the featured life-forms, assigning zodiac stars to invertebrate and sharing social media quizzes along the lines of “Which deep sea creature are you based on how you handle stress?” (If you ignore the world, you’re a translucent squid; if you explode with anger, you’re apparently a pistol shrimp.)
“Argentines are very passionate about everything that happens in Argentina,” said Georgina Valanci, 40, her eyes fixed on floating translucent fish while crocheting on Monday. “I think it represents a bit of the pride that something like this is being done in our country.”
Most Argentine researchers on the expedition come from Conicet, Argentina’s leading scientific funding and research body, shining a light on the institute’s work at a moment when its funding is under attack.
President Milei has taken his bureaucracy-slashing chainsaw to Argentine research projects and grants, curbing science spending as a part of a broader drive to eliminate Argentina’s chronic fiscal deficit and bring down inflation.
State-backed science organizations have lost 4,000 positions in the last year and a half — a combination of layoffs, frozen contracts and resignations over poor working conditions and low pay.
Conicet suffered a 21 per cent budget cut in real terms last year. Salaries for Conicet researchers have lost 35 per cent of their value. Many warn that the measures are setting off a brain drain.
Seizing on the surge of public excitement about Conicet, researchers have called for a 48-hour nationwide strike on Wednesday to draw attention to their plight.
Although Milei has not commented on the livestream, his allies have expressed disdain.
“They should livestream an offshore drilling operation instead,” said Alejandro Álvarez, an official in Milei’s government, referring to growing crude production in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale formation – an oil boom that Milei hopes can help revive the nation’s crisis-stricken economy.
“It’s a beautiful process of wealth creation and natural resource exploitation that will make Argentina greater.”
In the meantime, Argentines seem content to be mesmerized by orange starfish.
