deep-sea

An 11-member team of professional deep-sea divers with closed-circuit equipment conducted the recovery, organised by British historian Simon Mills, founder of the Britannic Foundation.

"By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate Titan completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols," it added.

Wellington, the Cook Islands' biggest funder, said it was blindsided by the deals that were struck in February, covering infrastructure, tourism, technology and perhaps crucially, deep-sea mineral exploration.

His passion is fishing — Bagby dreams of reeling in a deep-sea marlin — but no hobby can nourish his soul as much as helping others.

One study published in Science earlier this month found that with 44,000 deep-sea dives, just 0.001% of the deep seafloor has been visually observed — which is roughly the size of Yosemite National Park.