THE deep sea is the largest habitat on earth, yet more people have been to the moon than to the deepest parts of our oceans. Orla Doherty is one of the lucky few to have explored the abyss.
An expert in underwater filming, Orla was the producer on the Deep Sea episode of the BBC's award-winning Blue Planet II series, the highlights of which are currently on tour as the spectacular Blue Planet II – Live in Concert show which visits Belfast's SSE Arena next month.
"Our mission with Blue Planet II was to find new stories in the ocean, to win hearts and minds, and to show the beauty of the ocean," said Orla, who spent her summer's as a child living beside the Donegal coastline at her grandparents house.
"My dad is originally from a real rugged patch of the Donegal coastline. To me the ocean was this wild Atlantic thing that was a little bit terrifying and certainly not something I wanted to get into, because it was freezing and full of jellyfish."
Her view of the ocean was transformed during a trip to Asia for her 30th birthday.
"Once I put my head underwater and saw the life that was there – jellyfish and all – that's when I completely fell in love with it. It was the moment that changed the course of the rest of my life."
Having previously produced popular factual television, including Grand Designs, Orla's scuba diving experience led to her taking a career break and spending the next 10 years at sea studying the remote coral reefs of the Pacific Ocean with an NGO.
Upon returning back to London, Orla put her knowledge and passion to good use in landing her dream job with the natural history department of the BBC.
And since joining the Blue Planet II team in 2013, Orla, who also produced the 2018 documentary Oceans: Our Blue Planet, has filmed scientists at the frontline of ocean discoveries, from Indonesia to the Arctic Circle.
Although she has a degree in chemistry, Orla never did any academic studies in marine biology. "Having spent 10 years literally living in and on the ocean, you could say it was my teacher. One of the Professors that worked with me on the Blue Planet shoot said he would award me an Honorary PhD because I knew more about it than most of his students," she laughed.
"You have to become an expert in your field."
Her job also requires immense patience. For the one-hour long episode of Blue Planet II: The Deep, Orla and her colleagues spent 500 hours underwater in a deep-sea yellow submarine, as well as countless hours editing.
Their biggest challenge was often nature itself – darkness, cold temperatures and even an underwater volcano.
"We could be down there for up to 10 to 11 hours. I had three pairs of socks on for half for jackets thermal and I was still getting cold by the end of the day.
"Just maintaining a good level of concentration for hours on end and staying alert to what might be out there was a challenge in itself."
For Orla her most magical moment when filming Blue Planet II could also have been her most dangerous: "We were filming in the Gulf of Mexico when a methane volcano erupted and these giant bubbles came shooting out of the sea floor.
"We were shot upwards, but it felt like we were dropping out of the sky and that we had been to space and back. The next day, we returned to the same dive site, but there wasn't a trace of it. It's entirely possible no one will ever see again what we saw that day."
Another highlight for her was filming the sixgill shark. "It looks slightly like a monster, but to me is one of the most beautiful animals in the oceans," said Orla.
"It's a patient, slow-moving, old-living shark and when it moves I just think it's an extraordinary piece of beauty."
The Blue Planet II team worked closely with marine scientists and pushed the limits of technology using "all kinds of weird clever devices" and state-of-the-art camera sensors that could really respond to filming in extremely low light conditions.
The most unusual life form Orla witnessed was a sea toad who doesn't swim, but lives on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico.
"He's bright pink with yellow spots and he's got feet and I was hell bent on getting shots of this guy because he's such a wacky character. We even invented a camera so we could get down and film him at eye level."
The voice of Blue Planet II, of course, was Sir David Attenborough, whom Orla worked closely with in post production, re-fining and recording the script. "I had many magical moments with him talking about what we found. He's the greatest guru alive."
Orla also worked alongside the composers of the original immersive soundtrack – Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and David Fleming, and she is looking forward to seeing the spectacular visuals from the Bafta-winning show bought to life in the new arena concert tour which features live music from the 80-piece City of Prague Orchestra.
"The music is such a magical part of the process. I can't wait to see the live show, we are having a programme crew reunion and going to watch it together " adds Orla.
Sadly, she also witnessed first hand the damage society has had upon our ocean. "I've seen plastic where you wouldn't imagine – on a remote island thousands of miles from any human to the very bottom of the ocean 3,000 metres from the surface. It's everywhere."
Whilst she welcomed the debate Blue Planet II raised about our oceans, she calls upon the public to make a concerted effort to make our oceans "a better bubble".
"For us, it's been a reward to see people stop and think more about how and why they are using plastic. Now we need to look at the other ways we are impacting the ocean.
"It's a case of stopping and asking ourselves if we are OK with how our seafood has been sourced or farmed? We have so much choice, so we can choose what our future ocean is going to look like."
Orla will soon be packing her bags for her next project – which she is keeping under wraps for now. "I'm doing all sorts of things at the moment, but I won't ever be very far away from the ocean. There are creatures out there that I don't even know exist and they are the ones I want to find."
Also on her to do-list is a scuba dive in the Irish Sea, when she's next home visiting family: "There are unusual creatures wherever you look in the ocean and really beautiful massive creatures of the Donegal coastline that I wasn't even aware of when I was young, such as hunchback whales, so it's really worth getting up there and seeing them for yourself."
:: Blue Planet II – Live in Concert, hosted by Anita Rani, comes to Belfast's SSE Arena on March 23 and Dublin's 3Arena on March 24. Tickets from Ticketmaster.ie
