Ocean Discovery League Aims to Double Deep Seafloor Observations

Ocean Discovery League (ODL) has launched the Global Deep Sea Exploration Goals, an international effort to visually explore 10,000 strategically selected locations across the deep seafloor.

When completed, this initiative will nearly double the number of unique seafloor locations ever visually observed and produce the first globally representative visual dataset of the deep ocean floor.

The methodology behind this strategy was published in a Science Advances article titled “The Global Deep Sea Exploration Goals: A Representative Approach to Visually Observing the Deep Seafloor.” The paper describes how the target locations were selected using existing global datasets of key seafloor characteristics and outlines the impact that observing these locations could have on achieving a representative picture of deep seafloor environmental diversity.

The initiative builds directly on ODL’s landmark 2025 study, "How Little We've Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor," which revealed that only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has been visually observed despite covering more than half of the planet’s surface.

“More than 99.999% of the deep seafloor has never been seen,” said Dr. Katy Croff Bell, President of Ocean Discovery League, National Geographic Explorer, and senior author of the study. “The Global Deep Sea Exploration Goals provide the