In a groundbreaking scientific achievement, Heather Stewart, a marine geoscientist from Edinburgh, Scotland, has described her record-setting deep sea dive as the underwater equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.
On 16 April, Stewart and her colleague, Kate Wawatai from New Zealand, descended to a staggering 8,000 metres below the ocean’s surface in the Bakunawa submersible, marking the deepest dive ever undertaken by an all-female crew.
The nearly 10-hour expedition, part of a larger research mission in the South Pacific Ocean, inadvertently earned the pair a Guinness World Record, while also contributing valuable data to deep-ocean science.
“This was the Mount Everest of the deep — only in reverse,” said Stewart. “To reach that depth and know you’re one of the few humans ever to witness it is indescribable.”
The dive brought the team within striking distance of Everest’s 9,000m elevation—only in the opposite direction—highlighting the immense scale and mystery of Earth’s oceans.
The mission focused on mapping and sampling rarely explored areas of the ocean floor, with Stewart and Wawatai hoping their journey will inspire more women to pursue careers in science and exploration.
Their record-setting achievement is now being hailed as a triumph for gender representation in deep-sea exploration, and a powerful reminder of humanity’s drive to uncover the unknown.
