Into the mighty blue

A new documentary series by CCTV will take audiences to the depths of the Indian Ocean.[Photo provided to China Daily]

For director Liao Ye, a 62-year-old TV veteran, the program popularizes the value of oceanic exploration and the beauty of water.

"When I stood on the deck, I had never got bored watching the spectacular scenes for one hour," recalls Liao during a phone interview with China Daily.

He says the most impressive moments include witnessing schools of flying fish and dolphins jumping out of the shimmering water.

The video crew cruised aboard Xiangyanghong-9, the research vessel that carried Jiaolong almost half a world from China to a remote area of the southwestern Indian Ocean from late 2014 to early 2015. The submersible had the scientific mission to research polymetallic sulfides, biological diversity and hydrothermal microbes.

The Indian Ocean site, however, was not CCTV's first choice, according to the program's producer Feng Qiqi.

Liao initially focused on the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. Known as the deepest part of the world's oceans, the Mariana Trench reaches a maximum known depth of 10,994 meters, and Jiaolong reached a depth of 7,062 meters in the same trench in 2012.

Despite the high expectations, the footage shot then was not satisfying due to "some technical problems", says Feng.