Our ocean, our creatures, our frontier
En las profundidades del Atlántico sur, frente a las costas de la Patagonia, Argentina se prepara para descender nuevamente hacia lo desconocido. El CONICET ha anunciado la expedición Talud Continental V para 2027, una misión científica que explorará cañones submarinos inexplorados a seiscientos kilómetros de la provincia del Chubut. Más que una empresa técnica, esta travesía continúa una conversación que el país comenzó a sostener consigo mismo: la de reconocerse en las criaturas que habitan el fondo de su propio mar.
- Vastos cañones submarinos frente a la Patagonia permanecen casi completamente inexplorados por la ciencia, representando una de las últimas fronteras del territorio natural argentino.
- La expedición anterior superó los 92.000 espectadores simultáneos en vivo, una cifra que tomó por sorpresa a los propios científicos y reveló una sed pública inesperada por el conocimiento del océano propio.
- Los nuevos vehículos autónomos capaces de alcanzar entre 5.000 y 6.000 metros de profundidad reemplazarán a los ROVs anteriores, ampliando significativamente el alcance de lo que puede ser observado y documentado.
- Un equipo de diecinueve especialistas —biólogos, geólogos, expertos en sonar e investigadores de microplásticos— abordará el buque Falkor Two entre febrero y abril de 2027 para pasar veintitrés días en alta mar.
- La comparación entre los ecosistemas de los cañones del norte y del sur permitirá trazar, por primera vez, un mapa coherente de la biodiversidad marina a lo largo de toda la plataforma continental argentina.
El Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina anunció esta semana la expedición Talud Continental V, una misión oceanográfica que partirá entre febrero y abril de 2027 a bordo del buque Falkor Two, operado por el Schmidt Ocean Institute. Daniel Lauretta, director científico de la campaña anterior, presentó los planes durante una transmisión en vivo, confirmando que el equipo tendrá aproximadamente veintitrés días para explorar los cañones submarinos Almirante Brown y Ameghino, ubicados a seiscientos kilómetros de la costa de Chubut.
A diferencia de la expedición previa, centrada en cañones cercanos a Mar del Plata, esta misión se adentrará en aguas profundas prácticamente sin cartografiar. Los investigadores esperan encontrar fauna con similitudes a la hallada en el norte, pero también especies emparentadas con las de Tierra del Fuego o incluso las aguas antárticas. La comparación entre ambos sistemas de cañones aportará datos clave sobre cómo varía la biodiversidad marina a lo largo de toda la plataforma continental argentina.
La expedición incorporará tecnología de vanguardia: vehículos autónomos capaces de descender hasta seis mil metros, superando la capacidad de los ROVs utilizados anteriormente. El equipo de diecinueve personas incluirá biólogos, geólogos, especialistas en sonar e investigadores dedicados a la contaminación por microplásticos. También se realizará muestreo de ADN ambiental, filtrando grandes volúmenes de agua marina para identificar especies sin necesidad de capturarlas.
El antecedente inmediato pesa tanto como el proyecto mismo. La expedición Talud Continental IV de 2025 convocó a más de noventa y dos mil espectadores simultáneos en sus transmisiones en vivo, un número que desbordó todas las expectativas y que Lauretta comparó con la euforia colectiva del Mundial. Más de mil especímenes recolectados quedaron en Argentina y hoy forman parte de las colecciones del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Lo que aquella campaña demostró no fue solo la riqueza del fondo marino argentino, sino el deseo de un país entero de reconocerse en él.
Argentina's oceanographic research council announced plans this week for a second major expedition into the deep waters off Patagonia, building on the unexpected public success of their previous campaign. The new mission, called Talud Continental V, will launch sometime between February and April of 2027 aboard the research vessel Falkor Two, operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Daniel Lauretta, the lead scientist and director of the earlier Talud Continental IV expedition conducted in 2025, revealed the plans during a live broadcast on Infobea al Mediodía, the news organization's midday program.
The team will have approximately twenty-three days at sea to explore two submarine canyons—Almirante Brown and Ameghino—located six hundred kilometers off the coast of Chubut Province in southern Patagonia. Unlike the previous expedition, which focused on canyons near Mar del Plata in the north, this mission will venture into largely unmapped deep-water terrain. Lauretta explained that the deeper sections of these canyons remain scientifically unexplored, making them ideal candidates for discovery. The expedition forms part of a larger effort to map and understand the full diversity of marine life across Argentina's entire maritime territory, from north to south.
The research team expects to find fauna similar to what they encountered off Mar del Plata, but also anticipates discovering species more closely related to those found near Tierra del Fuego or even Antarctic waters. Whether the canyons yield identical or entirely different ecosystems, Lauretta emphasized, the data itself holds scientific value. The comparison between northern and southern canyon systems will help researchers understand how marine biodiversity varies across Argentina's continental shelf.
The expedition will deploy cutting-edge technology, including a new autonomous underwater vehicle capable of descending to depths of five thousand to six thousand meters—deeper than the remotely operated vehicles used in the previous campaign. The team will comprise nineteen people, predominantly biologists but also including geologists, sonar specialists, and researchers focused on microplastics contamination. This multidisciplinary approach reflects the complexity of deep-sea research, where understanding an ecosystem requires expertise across multiple fields.
One of the most striking aspects of the earlier Talud Continental IV expedition was its unexpected reach into Argentine homes and classrooms. The Schmidt Ocean Institute's channel typically attracted around eight hundred simultaneous viewers during live broadcasts. When the Argentine team took over the feed, that number surged to more than ninety-two thousand people watching at once—a record that caught even the scientists by surprise. Lauretta compared the phenomenon to the national fervor surrounding Argentina's World Cup victory, suggesting that people connected with the discovery of their own marine heritage in a way that transcended typical scientific interest.
The previous expedition collected more than one thousand specimens, all of which remained in Argentina. Most are now housed in the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, where Lauretta works and where the nation's invertebrate collections are maintained. The team also conducted extensive environmental DNA sampling, filtering large volumes of seawater to capture microscopic genetic material shed by deep-sea creatures. This technique allows researchers to identify species without necessarily capturing them, reducing environmental impact while expanding the scope of discovery.
Lauretta reflected on why the earlier expedition captured public imagination so powerfully. He suggested it was partly novelty—Argentina had not seen this kind of sustained, real-time window into its own ocean depths before. But it was also something more personal. The creatures discovered were Argentine fauna, part of the nation's natural inheritance. For viewers watching from schools and living rooms across the country, the expedition offered a tangible connection to a frontier that felt both distant and deeply theirs. The new expedition will build on that momentum, diving deeper into canyons that remain almost entirely unknown to science.
Notable Quotes
The fauna is very beautiful, it is our fauna. It is like when Argentina won the championship, there were four or five million people in the street. Well, people saw the star, that is my star, these are our corals.— Daniel Lauretta, lead scientist
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that they're going back to the same ocean? Didn't they already explore it?
They explored one section—the canyons near Mar del Plata. These new canyons, six hundred kilometers south, are almost completely unmapped. It's like saying you've seen Buenos Aires, so you know all of Argentina.
But what's actually different about the southern canyons? Why would the life be different?
Water temperature, currents, proximity to Antarctica—all of it shifts as you move south. The creatures that thrive near Mar del Plata might not survive further down. They're looking for that boundary, that shift in what lives where.
The autonomous vehicle going deeper—is that just a technical upgrade, or does it change what they can actually discover?
It changes everything. The old remotely operated vehicles needed a cable tethering them to the ship. These new ones are independent. They can linger in places, cover more ground, reach depths where the cable would snap under its own weight. You see more, you stay longer, you find things you couldn't before.
Why did ninety-two thousand people tune in to watch the last expedition? That's extraordinary.
People wanted to see their own country. Not a nature documentary about somewhere else—their ocean, their creatures, their frontier. When Lauretta said it felt like watching Argentina win the World Cup, he meant it. That's the power of it.
What happens to all the specimens they collect? Do they stay in Argentina?
They do. Everything goes to the national museum. It's not about extracting resources or selling discoveries. It's about building Argentina's own scientific archive, its own understanding of what lives in its waters.