A Scottish scientist and his colleagues have set a new world record for the deepest dive by a female duo.
Heather Stewart, a marine geologist from Killin, Perthshire, was dropped 8,000 meters into the South Pacific Ocean in a submersible RV Dagon on April 16.
The 43-year-old mother was joined by friend and sub-captain Kate Wawatai from New Zealand.
The two women are on the Titanic submarine, which sank in the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3,500 meters last year, killing 19-year-old Strathclyde University student Suleman Dawood, his father Shahzada and three other crew members. The diver dived to a depth more than twice that of the previous one.
While they set a new world record, they also used their time to collect valuable data from previously unseen areas of the world’s oceans.
Heather told the Record: “It’s very exciting to explore parts of the ocean that no one has ever been to before.
“Before diving, Kate was aware that we were the first ever deep diving female duo and would be setting a new world record.
“It took us four days to arrive and three and a half hours to descend to 8,000 meters, and we are very fortunate to have the best team of engineers in the industry.
“We were able to stay there for eight hours and explore one of the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, called the Nova Canton Trough. There’s a fish. It’s a snailfish made of gel.”
“You can’t stay in the submarine for too long because the temperature drops to 1°C and it gets pretty cold.”
Two Samoa-based women and a team of experts had to sail for four days to reach the 400-mile-long stretch of water above the equator.
Heather told the Record that she wants to encourage young girls to take up diving and consider deep sea science as a career.
She added: “My daughters always tell me how proud they are of me, so it always makes me tear up a little bit.
“I started deep sea diving in 2019 and we discussed the risks at the time.
“We both think this is a really great job. There aren’t that many female submarine pilots or women working in this field worldwide.
“We want to see more young girls starting careers in this industry. Things are changing, but it will take time.”
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