As one scientist put it, humans 'know more about the moon than we do about the deep ocean', but this ship — and those on board —have just chalked up their 100th mission, attempting to redress the knowledge imbalance.
The CSIRO research vessel RV Investigator has been uncovering secrets of the deep ocean since 2014 and has just embarked on its 100th voyage.
Blind cusk eels, zombie worms and carnivorous sponges are some of the species that have been discovered by scientists onboard the CSIRO research vessel RV Investigator.During that time around 265,000 marine life records have been collected through scientific surveys, and of those, around 1,000 are thought to be new species.
This doesn't include a number of rediscovered species such as the "faceless fish", which had previously never been collected in Australian waters. "The endurance of the vessel is much greater than we have previously had in the Marine National Facility, so this vessel can go 10,000 nautical miles in a single voyage," CSIRO director of national collections and marine infrastructure Toni Moate said.Toni Moate explains the Investigator as being designed to move silently through the water as it goes about its research.