President Obama on Deep-Sea Diving and One Unimpressed Seal (Exclusive) | National Geographic

It is a great honor to meet you. I'm in awe of anybody who's done so much for ocean conservation. I see one of your constituents is coming. I notice you know doesn't seem that excited about meeting the president. This all should be. That's great, great to see you.

You know, there's so many of your constituents who are out there that most people don't even know about. I had a question for you, and that is, what's it like going down a thousand meters?

I'd love to show you. I mean, I've done some diving, but I think right around a hundred, I kind of say, okay, it's time to turn back. But it must get pretty dark down there. Most of life on Earth lives in the dark red all of the time, because below a thousand feet it's dark, but life persists seven miles down.

Yeah, and that's part of what is now, you know, protected, right? So you're still diving, huh?

I'm still breathing, so of course I'm still. How many dives have you taken?

Oh, you know, seven thousand hours. That's a lot of hours.

No, it's not, but think about it, how little of the ocean we still know.