Imagine leaving the ocean’s surface on a Tuesday morning and coming back up to breathe fresh air on Friday afternoon. Picture the oceanic wildlife being completely oblivious to your presence, behaving as if you weren’t there, or as if you’d always been part of their environment, to the point where you could pat the fishes and understand their individual personalities.

Now, visualise closing your eyes in the belly of the ocean to fall asleep, gently swaying from side to side in time with the long swell, only to be woken up in the middle of the night by the songs of the surrounding humpback whales.

As you wake to a dim blue light, it’s already dawn. You’re mesmerised by the morning’s oceanic routine unfold before your eyes, right from your bed, as if you were looking at a large city from the top of a skyscraper. That’s what living underwater looks like for the aquanauts of the Under the Pole expedition …