Early Online Release | Oceanography
INTRODUCTION
In his opening remarks at the inaugural meeting of The Ocean
ography Society, David Packard spoke about an opportunity to
accelerate progress in ocean science through technology develop
ment (Packard, 1989). The ocean, as he saw it, was the last fron
tier on Earth, and it did not garner the attention it deserved. Yet,
it held untold mysteries and unseen landscapes, and many techni
cal, scientific, and societally relevant discoveries awaited. Two years
earlier, that insight had led to the founding of the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI; Barber, 1988; Chavez et al.,
2017a). A combination and integration of three foundational tech
nologies were projected to transform oceanography: remotely oper
ated vehicles (ROVs), new types of sensors, and advanced comput
ing and data systems. Starting with those building blocks, Packard’s
charge when founding MBARI was to “go deep and stay long” to
improve our understanding of the ocean (Barber, 1988) and to
“return data, not samples.” This article draws from that legacy.
Packard was right. The advent of robotic and advanced sens
ing and computing technologies has indeed transformed ocean
exploration. New tools and techniques have allowed us to over
come many, but by no means all, of the challenges posed by the
sea’s depth, vastness, and inaccessibility. Packard, like many
others, understood that a sustained investment in basic research
and engineering would pay future dividends in ways that could
not be foreseen. Today, nearly 40 years after MBARI’s founding,
hybrid human-machine and fully autonomous systems are reveal
ing an unprecedented perspective on the interplay between marine
chemistry, physics, biology, and geology. Robots enable coordi
nated observations of the water column and seafloor in ways that
humans cannot match and allow extended missions in extreme
environments. Collection of long-term monitoring data from far-
flung corners of the globe, automated in situ analyses, real-time
communications and data sharing, and active multimedia public
engagement across continents are now a part of everyday oceanog
raphy. A new window into our ocean world is opening—one that
was long imagined by visionary scientists, engineers, and science
fiction writers alike.
This paper examines a number of technological innovations that
are revealing surprising insights into the inner workings of our
ocean and its inhabitants against the backdrop of a rapidly chang
ing climate. The examples given are by no means a comprehensive
review of the role that technology is playing in ocean exploration.
Many individuals from organizations around the world have made
lasting contributions that have brought us to this juncture. Here,
several case studies are chosen to illustrate that ongoing process
and to pay homage to some of the scientists and engineers who
set us on this course. We still have much to learn about the sea, its
inhabitants, and the vital role it plays in sustaining the health of
our planet and the well-being of society. Decades-long interdisci
plinary science and engineering pursuits have ushered in a new era
of discovery driven by bold ideas, serendipitous discoveries, and
the allure of the largest and least explored habitat on Earth.
TAKING THE PULSE OF THE PLANET
In 1957, Roger Revelle and Hans Suess captured the scientific com
munity’s imagination with their groundbreaking paper on CO2
exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean (Revelle and
Suess, 1957). They argued that CO2 released from the burning of
fossil fuels was accumulating in the atmosphere and that a signif
icant fraction of the emissions had dissolved into the sea. Perhaps
most importantly, they went on to say,
…human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical
experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past or
be reproduced in the future… This experiment, if adequately doc
umented, may yield a far-reaching insight into the processes deter
mining weather and climate.
Their findings were provocative, scientifically tantalizing, and
urgently driven by increasing global industrialization, and sug
gested that increased atmospheric CO2 could lead to changes in
ocean chemistry and a warmer climate with potentially compound
ing amplifications due to a number of processes that were known
but not well characterized at the time. The insight was brilliant, but
ABSTRACT. The advent of robotic and artificial intelligence technologies has transformed ocean exploration, overcoming many, but
not all, of the challenges posed by the sea’s depth, vastness, and inaccessibility. From data collection and long-term monitoring to real-
time communications, data sharing, and public engagement, hybrid human-machine and fully autonomous systems are revealing an
unprecedented perspective on the interplay between marine chemistry, physics, geology, and biology in ways that humans cannot match.
This paper examines a number of exemplary decades-long interdisciplinary science and engineering pursuits that have fueled that prog
ress. More recent advancements in microelectronics, biopharma, aerospace, manufacturing, materials and computer sciences, and social
media—foundations of multibillion dollar industries that generally have nothing to do with marine science—are accelerating our abil
ity to explore the ocean and share our findings with a global audience. Every time we return to the sea with open minds, a willingness to
attempt something that has never been done before, and new technologies in hand, we learn something new, more often than not seren
dipitously. The ocean is undergoing increasingly rapid change due to human activities, and we are in a race to learn more about its inner
workings, reveal its incredible diversity of life, and visualize its submerged landscapes. A sustained commitment to technology develop
ment is integral to competing in that race. No doubt, there is still much to learn about the largest and least explored habitat on Earth and
the vital role it plays in sustaining the health of our planet and the well-being of society.