Living Under The Ocean Feel Surprisingly Similar To Living In Space, And Researchers Hope The Resulting Sense Of Awe Could Inspire Us All

For the vast majority of us, our entire lives will be lived on the surface of the Earth.

Sure we might snorkel or even dive from time to time, but generally we are terrestrial creatures, living on the outer surface of the planet we call home.

Of course, with plans for life in space in future, this may not always be the case, but for the time being at least, most of us will never know what it is like to eat, sleep, and live anywhere else.

For a very small minority of astronauts and aquanauts, however, reality is different – they know what it’s like to live elsewhere, and just how different that feels.

Most of us are familiar with astronauts (or, cosmonauts or taikonauts, depending on where you’re from).

Aquanauts, however, are those scientists who live and work under the sea – and, according to a new study from researchers at Northeastern University, their experience is very similar to those who spend chunks of their working lives out in space.

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Environment and Behavior, the researchers compared the ‘overview effect’ of astronauts (meaning, a kind of wonder and kinship with nature) with an ‘underview effect’ for aquanauts.

And the researchers are hoping that this experience can translate to the wider public, with positive effects on the way that our destructive species treat the world around us.

As Northeastern researcher Brian Helmuth explains in a statement, the way that humans have treated the planet thus far has put the Earth in something of an existential crisis:

“We’re at this juncture where we’re realizing that a business-as-usual approach to how we interact with nature and especially the ocean is just not going to cut it. Unless we reframe the way we interact with the ocean, we’re in a lot of trouble.”

To do this, researchers invited aquanauts to explain how they felt after living underwater, with the underwater scientists explaining that they felt more committed and connected to nature, with their awe and gratitude increasing on a massive scale, as explained by Fabien Cousteau:

“You see the dynamic, daily activity in a small region, in an underwater city. You are all of a sudden immersed into an existential consciousness. You realize the health and beauty of our planet is the health and beauty of ourselves.”

While there were negatives (living underwater apparently led to a feeling of tipsiness, as well as stress and exhaustion), one thing was clear: the aquanauts were left with a true sense of wonder – and that’s something we could all be inspired by.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.