![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/07\/9fe4c524-gp0stt5m9_web_size.jpg\")
Hercules captured this image of a deep-sea jelly fish, possibly Poralia rufescens, undulating several meters above the seafloor just south of the IMAX vent at Lost City. Atlantic Ocean, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. \u00a9 NOAA\/OAR\/OER, The Lost City 2005 Expedition.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/b>We weren\u2019t sure what we were looking at to begin with, it tested our scientific understanding and knowledge at first, because we hadn\u2019t seen anything like this before. First we saw corals, and then we saw these huge white structures, hydrothermal geysers, which emit hot water into the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the geysers and structures looked like cathedrals \u2014 that\u2019s why my colleagues called it the Lost City. It was such a fitting name because we were on the research ship Atlantis<\/i>, mapping a mountain called the Atlantis Massif, which is bound by the over 4000m deep Atlantis Fracture Zone.<\/p>\n
<\/b>The beauty of the Lost City is hard to describe \u2014 I just never lose my awe for the area. I can look at video footage of it for hours. It\u2019s hard to believe that there\u2019s colour even at a depth of 800 meters, everything has colour, the corals and even the crabs. I mean, it\u2019s dark down there, why do things need colour?<\/p>\n The mauve stinger jellyfish, or Pelagia noctiluca, grows up to 10 centimeters in diameter. When a calm sea is disturbed by a passing boat or dolphin at night, this jellyfish is able to produce flashes of light. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Gavin Newman<\/p><\/div>\n I still get excited about the chance to go back to the Lost City. It\u2019s like going back to that special place you love to go on holiday.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been out there four times, since we discovered it 20 years ago. I\u2019d love to visit more but it\u2019s expensive to visit the deep sea. Scientific expeditions cost money, so it\u2019s taking us years to find out more about the Lost City.\u00a0<\/p>\n We haven\u2019t found many areas like the Lost City, it\u2019s the only one in the Atlantic. We still don\u2019t know how these systems have formed or how they\u2019ve been able to sustain themselves for thousands of years. We know and understand so little about the seafloor, so it makes you wonder how many other surprises are out there.<\/p>\n Arbonate spires in the Lost City vent field. Atlantic Ocean, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. \u00a9 NOAA\/OAR\/OER, The Lost City 2005 Expedition.<\/p><\/div>\n Every time we get down there we come away with more questions. Does it hold information on how our earth formed? Is it the building blocks of life? We just don\u2019t know… yet!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n We\u2019ll have a better understanding in a few years, but even then we can\u2019t say \u2018wait for 10 years, and then you can go and destroy it\u2019. With science you\u2019re never done.\u00a0<\/p>\n I am very protective of the Lost City. Even as a scientist, just breaking off a small sample of it for research hurts, because you want to protect it.<\/p>\n There are no rules about visiting Lost City. There is no government, no policies, no permission required from anyone to go there and do whatever you want. It doesn\u2019t belong to me, it doesn\u2019t belong to anybody, I just continue to discover it. Nobody owns places like this.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Madeira rockfish, or Scorpeana Maderensis, can change pattern and color from almost white to deep red, in an attempt to imitate the background. This beautiful fish is too small to be a target for commercial fishing. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Gavin Newman<\/p><\/div>\n Right now the Deep Sea Mining industry is carelessly drawing lines on the seafloor and buying it up <\/i><\/b>\u2014<\/i><\/b> as if it\u2019s just up for grabs.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s costly to go out and mine or dredge the deep sea, but it\u2019ll be very tempting as minerals become rarer. We can\u2019t set a precedent that anyone can send diggers down and do what they want with our oceans.<\/p>\n If diggers go in, they\u2019ll likely create huge amounts of dust and noise, and we don\u2019t know what the impact will be. We don\u2019t know what it will do to ocean chemistry. We don\u2019t know what we\u2019re destroying or disturbing. And because we don\u2019t know, surely we should be careful?<\/p>\n Protecting natural wonders on the seafloor would be the first step towards safeguarding our oceans. It\u2019s not just the Lost City that needs protecting. If we can understand what\u2019s going on in our natural laboratory, we can learn more about how life on earth started and perhaps even more about other planets.<\/p>\n![\"Mauve](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/07\/26ceed14-gp0fd2_web_size.jpg\")
![\"Arbonate](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/07\/40dbdfce-gp0stt5m8_web_size.jpg\")
![\"Madeira](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/07\/da0cf75b-gp01g28_web_size.jpg\")