Yahoo News Edinburgh mum and pal break world record by plunging 8000m in submarine
An Edinburgh scientist and her colleague have achieved an amazing feat together by setting a new world record for the deepest dive ever carried out by a female pair.
Marin geologist Heather Stewart, who is originally from Killin but lives in the capital, travelled 8,000m deep into the South Pacific Ocean in submersible RV Dagon on April 16 2024.
The 43-year-old mother took on the task alongside her friend and sub captain Kate Wawatai, from New Zealand, the Daily Record reports.
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The two women plunged more than double the depth of the tragic Titanic sub which killed Strathclyde University student Suleman Dawood, 19, his dad Shahzada and three other crew members as it sank to 3,500m in the Atlantic ocean last year.
While the pair set a new world record, they also used the time to gather invaluable data from a previously unseen area of the world's oceans.
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Heather told the Record: "It's very exciting exploring parts of the ocean no one has visited before.
"Before our dive Kate realised we were the first ever deep-diving female duo and we would be setting a new world record.
"It took us four days to arrive and three and a half hours to get down to 8000m. We are very lucky to have a team of engineers who are the best in the business.
"We were able to stay down there for eight hours to study one of the deepest points of all the world's oceans called the Nova Canton Trough. There are incredible species of fish down at that level - Snailfish that are made of gel.
"You can't spend too long down there because temperatures drop to 1C inside our sub so it gets pretty chilly."
The two women and a team of experts, based in Samoa, had to sail for four days to reach the 400 mile-long sea zone on the equator.
Heather told the Record she hopes to encourage young girls to take up diving or consider deep-sea science as a career.
She added: "My daughters tell me they are proud of me all the time which is always a bit of a tearjerker.
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"I started deep sea dives in 2019 and we spoke about the risks at the time.
"They both think it's a really cool job. There are not very many female submersible pilots or women working in this field in the world.
"We want to see more young girls starting their careers in the industry. Things are changing but it takes time."
