Introduction
Fifteen years ago, the national ocean exploration program began
with establishment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
(OER), based on recommendations from President Clinton’s Panel
on Ocean Exploration (2000). Since that time, two vessels have been
dedicated to ocean exploration, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer,
operated by OER, and Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, owned
and operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET).
These two vessels have spent time exploring in the Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and the
Mediterranean and Black Seas, making discoveries in archaeology,
biology, geology, chemistry, and physical oceanography. Dozens of
shipwrecks have been discovered dating from ancient times to the
modern, acoustic mapping and remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
dives have shed light on the flux of hydrocarbons from beneath
the seafloor into the ocean, and innumerable records have been
set regarding observations of organisms in new locations and new
species unknown to science. And great quantities of data are now
in archives awaiting scientists and students to ask new questions
and make additional discoveries.
In this sixth ocean exploration supplement to Oceanography
magazine, we present the initial results of the Nautilus and
Okeanos Explorer 2015 field seasons in the Gulf of Mexico, the
Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. We include summa-
ries of exploration and discoveries and describe new devel-
opments in technology and engineering as well as innovative
outreach to stakeholders.
The results of the Nautilus Exploration Program are contained
in the first section, beginning with a description of the technologies
used on board Nautilus for telepresence-enabled deep submer-
gence exploration and educational programming (pages 8–13).
In 2015, the major addition to our technological suite was a new
VSAT system graciously donated to OET by SeaTel Cobham. We
also upgraded our suction sampling system, greatly increasing
our capacity to collect soft, small, and fragile samples. Last year,
we began including updates on sample analysis from previous
cruises, and we do so again in this edition, highlighting analyses of
biological and geological samples collected during the Galápagos
and southern California cruise legs (pages 14–17). We next focus
on our education and outreach programs (pages 18–23), which
By Katherine L.C. Bell and John McDonough
Background
photo credit:
NOAA OER