Vicious fights! Stunning beauties! Surprises around every corner! Yes, it's reality TV but with a lot more depth as much as 10,000 feet (3,048 metres). It's live coverage of deep-sea exploration off Nantucket and tens of thousands of people are tuning in.
They're watching an eel suddenly attack a squid, oohing-and-aahing over hot pink starfish and listening as excited researchers discover a canyon so downright alien that sea life lives on methane escaping from the sea floor instead of sunlight.
They're watching science as it happens, however weird and wild.
"We've been calling it Deep Sea TV," says National Marine Fisheries Services scientist Martha Nizinski, in a ship-to-shore interview. "It's much better than any other reality show being broadcast."
For years, the world of the deep sea floor has mostly been the province of scientists. A handful of researchers would huddle on a ship and watch the video from below, take notes, and two or three years later write a scientific paper.
Now, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ship Okeanos Explorer and its robotic submarine explore thousands of feet deep, the view is broadcast live, usually from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm EDT local time, for other scientists and everyday people to follow along to the tune of 50,000 visits.
Leona McKinney of Hiram, Georgia, started watching from home over three weeks ago.
"I've watched every day since then. In fact, I'm watching now. I'm hooked on it," she said in a phone interview Wednesday.
The expedition, which costs about USD 40,000 a day, continues until August 16. As the robotic sub roams the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts, scientists can call in or send messages with requests to see this or that.
In past years, the ship explored the Pacific Ocean, but the next several missions will be off the East Coast with officials considering a deep Puerto Rico trench dive in the winter with live coverage, of course.
Aboard the ship, researchers do more than watch; they explain the science and the action for viewers.
"It's a bit like colour commentary from sports," says US Geological Survey scientist Amanda Demopoulos, whose voice is often heard calling the underwater action. "These are mysterious ecosystems. We don't always know what we're going to find."
The expedition seems to be gaining loyal viewers, Nizinski said.
"We're giving everybody a really good diversion and keeping them from doing their work," she said.
