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Two intrepid Maldives aquanauts made history by being the first residents of the lowest-lying country in the world to travel far into the twilight zone.
Shafiya Naeem, a marine biologist and the director general of the Maldives Marine Research Institute, and her colleague Farah Amjad, a research assistant, were selected to be the lead aquanauts on the Nekton Maldives Mission’s first dive.
The expedition is a combined effort between the Maldives government and UK-based Nekton to map, sample, and collect data on ocean health that can help policymakers in the Maldives and elsewhere as the climate crisis worsens. In the Maldivian waters below 30 meters, there are hardly any pictures of marine life.
The Maldives flag was raised as the Omega Seamaster II three-person submersible rolled out on deck as the aquanauts took out from the mission mothership RV Odyssey off the coast of Laamu Atoll. 
They were flown by American Kimly Do on an expedition to study the wall of coral and marine life along the east coast of Lammu at various depths, ranging from 250 meters to a survey at 120 meters to a final transect at 60 meters.
The Maldives squad is aware of the rigorous standards. Since their country is the lowest on the planet, they are already witnessing storm surges and what are known as “coral bleaching episodes,” in which corals that serve as natural sea defenses are essentially boiled to death by rising sea temperatures, sparked by global warming.
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