It's been a murky vision, but the picture is now getting clearer: DEEP, an ocean technology and exploratory company that's literally sinking £100m into the Forest of Dean has revealed details of its #OccupyMare project, which aims to "make humanity aquatic".

Coming from a "stealth" company that openly describes itself as "secretive", the mission might sound like a deranged vision for humans to become amphibian, but the practical science all boils down to the one simple aim: to begin the era for humanity's continuous occupation of subsea living.

And now at last we have a date for the show to begin: November 3rd, 2026.

DEEP's #OccupyMare project highlights the disparity between our achievements in space and the woeful progress in discovering more about the habitat that occupies more than 70% of the globe.

To address that, on November 3rd, 2026, a spokesman said, six fully-trained crew will be deployed to DEEP's newly unveiled Sentinel oceanic habitat system, beginning the era of humanity's continuous presence underwater.

They added: "That day will go down in history as the day our species went to the ocean, and never looked back. This is the vision of DEEP: our species becoming a natural part of the oceanic biomes and environments, developing a deeper understanding and wisdom, and co-existing sustainably with a thriving ocean."

DEEP's design, research, and engineering efforts worked in strict secrecy from its dedicated engineering center in Bristol for more than two years, with more than 130 engineering, design, diving and medical professionals assigned to the project.

The fruit of that is the company's Sentinel habitat system, which it says is deployable anywhere on the planet's continental shelf and operates at ambient pressure in depths of up to 200m.

"The system is engineered to be modular and reconfigurable, with the smallest configuration allowing for rotating crews of six, who live and work continuously in the habitat for 28 days before cycling back to the surface. The system's fundamental modularity allows Sentinels to be recovered, reconfigured, upgraded, and redeployed on different missions and in different locations over the course of their operating lives," said DEEP.

Steve Etherton, President, added: "The Sentinel platform is not a product, it is a system, comprising the Sentinel habitat itself, of course, but also the next generation of DEEP submersibles, suits and a holistic training and safety operating system developed and delivered through the DEEP Institute at our Campus."

But he added that while the system is ground-breaking, "it represents only a first step in building a robust organization to enable deeper understanding of the ocean."