Marine Machines

Deep below the surface of the ocean an amazing new generation of tough, powerful underwater machines are hard at work. They carry dream pioneers to the bottom of the sea to repair oil pipelines or even confront some bizarre deep-sea creatures.

The world's maritime highways require constant maintenance by powerful diggers and heavyweight dredgers. Meet the huge suction draggers spewing silt, self-guided robotic beavers harvesting underwater trees, and other powerful digging machines.

When the script calls for underwater action, filmmakers use custom-made cameras, sunken sets, and mechanized monsters. Meet the innovators behind classic films, tour an animatronic aquarium, and learn how digital water is the wave of the future.

Icebergs are the biggest most menacing killers marauding the seas. This is the story of the International Ice Patrol, and others, who protect the shipping, fishing and oil and gas platforms from these floating bullies using any means necessary.

It is one of the most popular and revolutionary Marine Machines ever invented. For the past 60 years, Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or scuba, has enabled millions of enthusiasts to enter an unseen world of wonders.

Traditionally, breaking the rules of speed on the water meant risking death. With new materials and power technologies, designers can build boats that are able to break those rules, and literally fly on water.

Visit fascinating new installations in England, France, Iceland, Scotland, Denmark, and Canada for a close-up look at how scientists and engineers are converting the raw fury of the ocean into an infinite supply of non-polluting energy.

15 meters below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, global teams of astronauts and aquanauts are living, working, sleeping and studying the marine environment in a self-contained habitat called Aquarius. It's a vision of a future of life undersea.

Naval tactics have changed since the days of great battleships. Broadside firefights have been replaced by concealed precision strikes. Since the invention of radar, hiding a ship in open water is difficult, but for many coutries, not impossible.

As the age of giant battleships steams to a close, modern combat at sea has become a contest of in-shore stealth, wave-skimming hovercraft, scuba-wearing commandos, and an arsenal of deadly accurate missiles, torpedoes, and mines.

Our coastlines and harbors are littered with tens of millions of unexploded shells, mines and even atomic bombs. Finding them is tough, risky work, but for a boatload of American fisherman, searching for a 40-year-old hydrogen bomb is an obsession.

Every day, around the world, thousands of men and woman dive to work. They repair and maintain offshore oilrigs, search for victims of tragedy and crime, even plunge into tanks of raw sewage, performing dangerous, but essential, jobs.

When everyone else runs for the high ground, rescuers risk their lives to save those in need. They combine their courage with the capabilities of their amazing marine machines to get the job done.