Most people look at a cave and they see nothing but darkness.
They feel claustrophobic.
It's terrifying to even think about stepping into that doorway.
Put that entire environment underwater and it's just unfathomable to imagine.
But for me and for my colleagues, we look into the darkness and we see opportunity.
We want to know what's around the next corner.
Because as we stand on that threshold of the darkness
and we embrace the little bit of fear that exists
we want to step inside.
Because we know when we step inside that our eyes will adjust
and we have an opportunity to be enlightened by new discoveries and
opportunities, and learn about the biology of inner Earth,
about the natural beauty, the geology
that can teach us about Earth's climate past.
My name is Jill Heinerth
and I am the Explorer-in-Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society
It's the coolest title, isn't it?
Going inside a cave for me is almost a spiritual experience.
When I'm diving inside a cave I am diving inside the veins of Mother Earth.
I'm in the sustenance that brings life to this planet.
I mean that's incredible.
And I get to see things and places that nobody's ever been before.
And that's a remarkable privilege.
I faced a lot of barriers as a woman, as a diver,
and then as a cave diver,
and then as someone who's trying to be an underwater cinematographer,
those are all, you know, niches within niches within niches
that are very male-dominated.
So I've often been the only woman on a boat,
the only woman on an expedition, the only woman in a training class.
At one point I wanted to be a commercial diver
and I was told flat out there was no room for women in commercial diving.
Then I realized that I had to just perform and just put my head down, work hard,
and be good enough to be noticed, to get opportunities and then to ask for the gig
because frequently within a group of divers someone will kind of look past me
to the next qualified guy unless I jumped up and down and said, "Hey I want the gig, I want to do this.
How can I be prepared to do this job?"
But at the same time often being the first woman to do something
is an incredible place of privilege.
I mean I look forward to a time when we just look at divers as divers
and we don't say, "Oh wow she got a woman's record."
It's like, well so what? That doesn't really matter. I don't want that to matter.
I just want to be recognized as as a diver
that did her job and did well.
When I started cave-diving we were perceived as adrenaline junkies.
We were perceived as sports enthusiasts doing crazy things,
nearly getting themselves killed for thrills.
And from the very beginning of my cave diving experiences,
we've been jumping up and down and saying these places are important,
mapping them is important, accuracy is important.
Today in these caves, we're at the forefront of 3D mapping technologies
that will not just describe the inner space of our planet
but using autonomous devices to deploy
some of these technologies in the future will help us understand
deep ocean vents, max ocean depths, and anything within our oceans.
The Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary has very unique caves
and we know very little about them
because we're only just exploring and mapping them for the first time.
These sea caves are literally being created by the hydraulic pressure
of the waves crashing into these islands.
And these are living spaces.
There are things that are living in the darkness way back in the cave.
Our work is only just beginning
and I hope we have an opportunity to find more and fully map
the opportunities that are here in the Channel Islands.
Pristine places are becoming more and more rare.
These set asides are important for education
so that the public has an opportunity to interact with the environments
and the occupants of these environments
because when they can see and come to love these places,
then they'll want to protect them too.
I pinch myself every day for the opportunities that I have
to collaborate with scientists and engineers and technologists.
Caves are receptacles that carry so much information.
So many scientists are interested in it.
And as a cave diver and as an artist
I can be the hands and the eyes of scientists that I collaborate with.
And together we can make discoveries that are important to humanity.