Exploring the deep
I have more than twenty years of experience in exploring the deep ocean, including leading expeditions aboard research ships, using Human-Occupied Vehicles (HOVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), and discovering new species of deep-sea animals.
I have explored undersea volcanic vents in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian & Southern Oceans; the seafloor earthquake zone that triggered the 2004 tsunami; hotspots of deep-sea life in the Gulf of Mexico; and underwater mountains around Antarctica. These voyages have included working with film-makers for the BBC, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel.
No human eye had glimpsed this part of the planet before us, this pitch-black country lighted only by the pale gleam of an occasional spiralling shrimp.
Expeditions
June 2017
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 6th year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
December 2016
Diving around the Antarctic Peninsula with human-occupied vehicles (HOVs), as part of filming for the BBC's Blue Planet II & an IMAX movie for Alucia Productions.
This expedition included the first dives by human-occupied vehicles to 1 km (0.62 miles) deep in the Antarctic.
There are days when I love my job, & today was one of them, thanks to the hard work of the whole team aboard the research ship #Alucia pic.twitter.com/mTb5Mk9Pjr
— Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) December 14, 2016
June 2015
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 4th year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
August 2014
Exploring some of the world's shallowest hydrothermal vents, on the north coast of Iceland, using a microROV in an expedition led by Adrian Glover of the Natural History Museum.
June 2014
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 3rd year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
June-July 2013
RV Yokosuka Voyage YK13-05, led by by Prof Ken Takai of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), investigating deep-sea vents in the Cayman Trough with the Shinkai6500 manned submersible.
This expedition included the first dive by a human-occupied vehicle to the world's deepest known hydrothermal vents (depth ~5 km / 3.1 miles).
June 2013
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 2nd year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
February 2013
Principal Scientist, RRS James Cook Voyage 82, leading the exploration of deep-sea vents in the Cayman Trough with the Isis ROV.
June 2012
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 1st year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
November-December 2011
Principal Scientist, RRS James Cook Voyage 67, leading the first ROV exploration of deep-sea vents on the Southwest Indian Ridge (depth ~2.8 km).
July-August 2011
RV Celtic Explorer Voyage CE11009, exploring the first deep-sea vents detected on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores (depth ~3 km).
This expedition included filming for National Geographic's Alien Deep.
January-February 2011
RRS James Cook Voyage 55, surveying deep-sea vents in the Antarctic.
March-April 2010
RRS James Cook Voyage 44, exploring the world's deepest undersea volcanic rift, in the Cayman Trough of the Caribbean Sea.
January-February 2010
RRS James Cook Voyage 42, investigating deep-sea vents in the Southern Ocean, with the Isis ROV.
This expedition included filming for National Geographic's Alien Deep.
January-February 2009
RRS James Clark Ross Voyage 224, exploring undersea volcanoes in the Southern Ocean.
May 2005
Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami Offshore Survey in the Indian Ocean, as part of filming for Darlow-Smithson's Unstoppable Wave (BBC / ProSieben) and America's Tsunami: Are We Next? (Discovery Channel).
November 2004
Working at deep-sea vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (depth ~3.6 km) with the Jason-2 ROV.
November 2003
Diving to Gulf of Mexico cold seeps in the Johnson Sealink submersible.
February-April 2003
Autosub Under Ice expedition to the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, aboard the RRS
James Clark Ross.
February 2003
Diving to Gulf of Mexico cold seeps in the Johnson Sealink submersible.
March 2002
Investigating cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.
April 1998
RRS Charles Darwin Voyage 120 to the NE Atlantic.
September-October 1995
Diving to deep-sea vents in the NE Pacific in the US Navy's DSV Sea Cliff.
July-September 1994
British-Russian Atlantic Vents Expedition 1994 (BRAVEX/94) with the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
