Paul Agricola was the conductor, the mission’s maestro calling out direction in response to a rapidly changing concerto playing out six miles beneath his feet. The “percussion” driving the barely controlled mayhem was the steady cadence of pings from Sea Bat-II’s sonar station, deployed at 28,400 feet. Paul’s “string section” was provided by the incessant squealing of Sea Bat-I’s winch, operated by a quartet of crewman on the main deck. In the “pit,” Captain Heitman shifted the brass thrusters, veering the Tallman from port to starboard, shortening the length of Sea Bat-I’s cable whenever the monster drew too close to the ROV. Paul’s objective was to use Sea Bat-I to lure the Megalodon above the hydrothermal plume to a shallower depth where the Sea Bat-II and the transmitter dart awaited. The first of several problems with this deepwater game of cat and mouse was that Sea Bat-I’s sonar could only engage the Meg when the ROV dropped below the hydrothermal plume at 32,075 feet.
