You can help support Deep HOPE and become an ocean explorer, and discover deep blue places where no one has gone before.

Consider this: Although the ocean is vital for human life support, the combination of pressure, temperature and darkness in the deep sea have left it largely unexplored below diver depths. Though much of the ocean floor has been mapped, it is to a gross resolution of five kilometres - meaning we can only see features larger than five kilometres. We have better maps of the moon and of Mars than we do of the floor of our ocean.

Read more: Deep Hope

This far-flung Pacific Ocean outpost of France, otherwise known as French Polynesia, has been the inspiration of dreamers, the avant-garde and the impressionists.

Read more: Dreaming in Fakarava

Photos and Essay by Isabella Maffei - Special Mention winner Ocean Geographic's Photo Journalist of the Year award

A step back in time between eco-sustainability and culture. Tuna fishing is a piece of food culture still persisting in northern Italy, safeguarded and accepted in one of the most famous marine protected areas in the world: the Portofino Marine Reserve.

Read more: The Camogli "Tonnarella"

Researchers believe there are more 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. While about 20% are afloat, in transit or trapped at the five known plastic gyres, more than four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometre are in the deep sea. Be afraid; be very afraid of these scary numbers. Frightening numbers!

We dump eight million tonnes of plastic in the ocean every year. A recent survey of the Australian coastline documented three-quarters of coastal rubbish is plastic, averaging more than six pieces per meter of coastline. Offshore, densities vary from a few thousand pieces to more than 40,000 of plastic per square kilometre.

Read more: The Plastic State of Ocean

This is the largest migration on earth and it happens every single night in oceans and lakes all over the world. Surrounded by aliens, witnessing their world, one can only wonder why outer-space would be fascinating to anyone with all this going on right in our own oceans. Gently descending into the void, Mother Ocean welcomes me into her dark embrace with her body-hugging pressure. Turning on one low-focus light, at first all we see is the blackness of the night sea, sprinkled with occasional white flecks of particulate matter gently falling in slow motion.

Suddenly, something thin and gelatinous ghosts by, no more than 20 centimetres long. It freezes for a brief moment to flare into a Fandango stance, as if to say "check this out". Then, all hair-like tentacles collapse and the thin line whisks off into the darkness. Wow! What was that?

Read more: Magic in the Dark

ÎLE DE LA PASSION IS A RUGGEDLY ENCHANTING PLACE with a volatile history, a harsh equatorial climate, and a staggering marine debris problem.

Sixty-three hours into our drive, it was obvious that we were all more than ready for the commute to be over. Camera and video gear had all been set up and tested more thoroughly than could possibly be necessary, every white cap on the horizon line looked like a speck of land, and some of us were even resigned to doing our work. M&Ms were being eaten compulsively, and the meal and presentation schedule was what kept us on track as the hours slowly ticked by, and we still had more than a day left to go. But the reward would be well worth the wait.

Read more: Impressions of Île de la Passion

DR SYLVIA EARLE IS A WOMAN OF MANY FIRSTS: She was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, LA Time’s Woman of the Year in 1970, ordained a knight in 1981, named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998. In 1979, she made an open-ocean JIM suit dive to the sea floor alone near Oahu, setting a women's depth record of 381 metres. In 2009, she won a TED Prize, and with TED's support, she launched Mission Blue, which aims to establish marine protected areas (“Hope Spots") around the globe. In 2014, she was named Glamour Woman of the Year, a UN Champions of the Earth Award, and the first woman to be celebrated at an Explorers Club Tribute Ceremony. We are honoured to have Dr Sylvia Earle as Chair of the Ocean Geographic’s Honorary Editors Board. Here, she shares with us some of her deep secrets.

Read more: Deeper with Sylvia Earle

The Art of Nature is epitomized in cephalopods – they are the most enigmatic jet powered, mesmerizing, mind controlling predators.

Cephalopods are the most intelligent, most mobile, and the largest of all molluscs. The order comprises of squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, the chambered nautilus, and their relatives display remarkable diversity in size and lifestyle with adaptations for predation, locomotion, disguise and communication.

Read more: Chameleons Magic

Not much has changed over 20 years, though I was carrying four camera housings capable of capturing just 144 shots each dive then, but now, I often carry just one capable of shooting 3,200 pictures!

Sometimes it does seem that I have a death wish or perhaps am just a sucker for punishment. Well, all in the name of adventure and exploration, or misadventure if I fail to survive the ordeal. Thankfully, Angels have watched over me. My exploits of the seven seas have seen me floating in the open ocean for over six hours, getting my knee chopped by a propeller in gear, and being stranded on a refugee boat 30 years ago in the middle of the South China Sea for three weeks. However, when you pay good money for an exploratory expedition on a private boat but end up twiddling your thumbs on a dilapidated piece of junk, you will probably fail to be amused. That was my first trip to Alor in 1994.

Read more: Alor - Again and Again

This is the HEART OF THE CORAL TRIANGLE; the bull’s eye of marine biodiversity.

We are blessed to have oceans brimming with distinct and productive ecosystems. From the frigid Arctic Ocean filled with the largest aggregation of Atlantic cod left on the planet, to the warm tropical seas of the Indo-Pacific boasting the highest number of coral and fish species on Earth, our world’s waters are endlessly varied and diverse.

Read more: Kingdom of Fishes