Hoped for
DEEP BLUE CURAÇAO
What lives beneathour Curaçao blue?
This October, Curaçao's first deep-sea expedition sets out from our own shores to explore everything between the surface and the seafloor, down to 4,500 metres, because it is hard to look after a sea we have never really seen, and most of ours has never been seen at all.
The deep
97%
Most of our sea is out of sight
Most of us know the reef well, because we snorkel it, dive it and fish near it, but about 97% of Curaçao's waters are deeper than 200 metres. Just a few kilometres off the north coast the seafloor drops away and keeps going, past 4,000 metres in the Venezuela Basin, and because all of that happens out of sight it has slipped out of mind, along with the many species that live out there. Getting to know that part of our sea is the first step towards looking after it well, and that is what this expedition is for.
Swipe to explore →
The trip
How the trip works
The expedition begins with a test phase, to make sure the equipment and the crew are ready, and then moves through five sessions of two days each at sea, one off the south coast and four on the northern slope, sampling by day, by night and at dawn so that we see not only what lives down there but when.
- South coast
Test phase
3 days
Before anything goes into the deep, the team spends three days checking the equipment, calibrating the cameras and training the crew, so that every deployment afterwards counts.
- South coast
Session 1
2 days
The first full survey, from the surface all the way down to the abyss, carried out off the south coast.
- Northern slope
Session 2
2 days
The same survey, repeated on the northern slope, where the seafloor falls away to the greatest depths.
- Northern slope
Sessions 3 and 4
2 days each
The survey repeated twice more on the northern slope, giving the team further chances to see who comes and goes at different times of day.
- Northern slope
Session 5
2 days
The final session, which closes the survey on the northern slope.
Across the sessions, about 15 seafloor deployments and about 15 drifting-array deployments, with observers watching the surface throughout.
At least two rest days sit between sessions, which leaves room for weather, repairs, backing up the data, resting the crew and training Curaçaoan scientists, and if the weather turns, a session simply slides to the next good window instead of being lost.
Every night, in every ocean, an enormous number of animals rise from the depths towards the surface to feed under cover of darkness, and every dawn they sink back down again. It is one of the largest migrations on Earth, and it happens every single day, yet we hardly ever talk about it, perhaps because it runs up and down rather than across a map. It also means the same depth can hold a completely different community at midnight than at noon, which is why the expedition samples day, night and dawn.
How we look
Three layers, and only a steel weight left behind
We watch the whole water column without disturbing it, using three methods that work together from the surface to the seafloor.
4,500 m
Surface · 0 m
Observers record whales, dolphins, seabirds and turtles, and photograph individuals so they can be recognised again in future.
Water column · 30 to 1,200 m
A line hangs from a surface buoy with cameras at 30, 100, 400, 800 and 1,200 metres, filming the whole water column in a single deployment, which is believed to be a world first.
Seafloor · 1,200 to 4,500 m
A baited camera frame sinks on a steel weight, films for several hours and then rises on its own buoyancy, and the weight is the only thing that stays behind.
Far-red light
Down in the deep, animals mostly see only blue light, whereas far-red light (about 690 nm) is invisible to most of them, so our cameras can watch them behave naturally. The footage comes out in black and white and the cameras only see a few metres, which is why we use bait.
Hydrophones listen for whales and measure underwater noise, and sensors record temperature, salinity and depth, giving us a first picture of these waters that future research can build on.
Who might be down there?
The honest answer is that we don't know yet, which is exactly why we are going, but here are the animals we hope to meet.
Hoped for
Vampire squid
Hoped for
Deep-water sharks
Hoped for
Beaked whales
Hoped for
Sperm whales
Hoped for
Something new to science?
Neighbours we already know
Some neighbours we have already met
Between 2023 and 2026, CCS expeditions across the ABC islands recorded 47 groups of 9 species of whales and dolphins, and among their findings were the first proven whale movement between Curaçao and Bonaire and sperm whale families with youngsters in 70% of the groups, which shows that Curaçao is a nursery area. The same work documented a harder side too, with harassment, injuries from boats and animals entangled in fishing line.
Where it comes from
Looking after our sea didn't start this week
Looking after our sea has been a long conversation in Curaçao. Blue Halo Curaçao laid the groundwork between 2015 and 2019, the fish reproduction zones and the Curaçao Underwater Park, managed by Carmabi, followed in 2018, and Klein Curaçao received its own management plan in 2025, so this expedition carries that work further out, to the part of our sea we know least.
2015 to 2019
2018
2025
What we will bring back
Sightings and photo-ID for whales, dolphins and seabirds.
A clearer picture of what lives in our deep sea, shared in plain language so that anyone in Curaçao can use it.
The mini-documentary Below the Curaçao Blue, in English and Papiamentu.
Curaçaoan scientists trained on the water.
An open-access publication.
Join in
Want to be part of it?
Quick questions
Because we cannot care well for a sea we have not seen, and learning what lives in the deep, how much of it there is and how it changes over time gives Curaçao a much better starting point for understanding its waters in the years to come.
Because it is far from empty, as whales travel between Curaçao and Bonaire and sperm whales raise their young in our waters.
No, because the far-red light is invisible to most deep-sea animals, so they carry on as if we were not there.
Only the steel ballast weight of the seafloor camera frame.
Partners
Who is behind it
With thanks to the Waitt Institute for the earlier groundwork (Blue Halo Curaçao).