Indian Ocean exploration mission makes historic broadcast

Video. Indian Ocean exploration mission makes historic broadcast

A British-led scientific mission to document changes taking place beneath the Indian Ocean broadcast its first live, television-quality video images from a two-person submersible early Tuesday.

A British-led scientific mission to document changes taking place beneath the Indian Ocean broadcast its first live, television-quality video images from a two-person submersible early Tuesday.

"Congratulations," said Nekton Mission director Oliver Steeds to the crew in the sub. "You've made broadcast history."

Lucy Woodall, Nekton Mission principle scientist, inside the undersea craft, expressed excitement at what she was seeing. "We can already tell that while we've been descending, above us the animals and communities look really different," she said, adding that "until you come down and have a look you've really just no idea what would be down here."

The first transmission came from 60 meters down (200 feet).

Previous deep sea live streams cataloguing the world's oceans have been via fibre optic cable – today's broadcast used cutting edge wireless technology, sending video optically through the waves.