麻豆社

Our explorations of the deep oceans have so far given us only tantalising glimpses of weird and wonderful species. A team from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton is currently sailing through the Caribbean and the Southern Ocean on a mission to provide us with much more than a few fuzzy photos of a giant worm or an upside down prawn.

They want to tie-up the loose ends, telling us just how the many islands of life in the deep actually interact. They hope their mission will greatly aid conservation efforts and make the exploitation of the ocean's resources fairer and more sustainable.

'Costing the Earth' joins the expedition as it sails from southern Chile and launches Isis, a remote-controlled submarine armed, for the first time, with high definition cameras.