CNN.com was showing the bluefin in the live feed box about an hour ago. They said they have to map the ocean floor 1st; before bringing the more sophisticated equipment in; the robot type vehicles.
From the
How deep is deep article Keep plunging
The pressure at nearly 15,000 feet is crushing -- so much so that very few manned submarines can withstand it.
"There are only about half a dozen subs that can go to half the ocean depth with a number of countries having that capability," said Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer for National Geographic. "If it gets to the point of collapse, it basically implodes, it just crushes."
Only a handful of people have traveled to such staggering depths.
One of them is movie director James Cameron, who using a state-of-the-art vessel, dropped 35,000 feet, or about 7 miles, to the deepest place on Earth -- the Challenger Deep in the western Pacific Ocean.
James Cameron emerges from 'alien world' at ocean's depths
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Pings go silent; search goes underwater It will take the probe and its operators 24 hours to map each portion of the search area -- two hours to descend, 16 hours to map, another two hours to rise to the surface and four hours for operators to download and analyze the information.
The first mission will cover an area 5 kilometers by 8 kilometers (3.1 miles by 4.9 miles). It will take up to two months to scan the entire search area.
