The main idea of the first part: 1 In 1953, on the heels of a discovery of a second coelacanth specimen in the Comoros Islands off Madagascar’s coast, J.L.B. Smith, the man who described the species, wrote in The Times of London: “We have in the past assumed that we have mastery not only of the land but of the sea... We have not. Life goes on there just as it did from the beginning. Man’s influence is as yet but a passing shadow. This discovery means that we may find other fishlike creatures, supposedly extinct but still living in the sea.” 2 Unlike the coelacanth, which was thought to have gone extinct, we have known for centuries that giant squid have existed in our oceans’ depths. But unable to observe them alive in their deep sea home, we have understood very little about how they live, where they live and how they behave. 3 That is, until 2012, when Drs. Edith Widder, Steve O’Shea and Tsunemi Kobodera filmed the elusive and mysterious giant in its natural deep-sea habitat for the first time — a landmark moment in ocean exploration and an example of how technology and ingenuity can overcome the monumental challenges we face in exploring the deep. But it is a drop in the vast ocean-sized bucket of amazing discoveries waiting to be made.
A.
Man’s influence is as yet but a passing shadow.
B.
But unable to observe them alive in their deep sea home, we have understood very little about how they live, where they live and how they behave.
C.
But it is a drop in the vast ocean-sized bucket of amazing discoveries waiting to be made.
D.
Man is far from having control of the ocean. We know very little about it, and the discoveries we have made, though monumental, are but a drop in an ocean-sized bucket.