Sponsored Projects: NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research .................................................................... 118
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................. 118
Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology ......................................................... 119
Exploration of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Structure on Seamounts in the Western CCZ ......................... 120
Kiska: Alaska’s Underwater Battlefield ........................................................................................................................... 121
Aviators Down! The Search for Tuskegee and Free French World War II Aircraft in Lake Huron ............... 122
Peleliu’s Forgotten World War II Battlefield ................................................................................................................... 123
The American Theatre of World War II and the KS-520 Convoy Battle ................................................................ 123
Instrumentation to Assess the Untainted Microbiology of the Deep-Ocean Water Column .................... 124
Comparison of Free Vehicle and Conventional CTD ................................................................................................. 125
Midwater Acoustic Echosounding with the Wire Flyer Towed Profiling Vehicle ............................................. 126
3D “Seismic Oceanography”: The New Frontier in Ocean Water Column Exploration ................................. 127
PART 3. SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE – R/V FALKOR ........................................................................................ 128
Scaling Up Marine Science and Conservation with Artificial Intelligence and Smart Robotics in 2018 .......... 130
EPILOGUE........................................................................................................................................................................................ 138
Authors ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 140
Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................................................................... 144
References .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 147
Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 150