continue to reach unprecedented numbers of people, up to an esti-
mated 80 million over the course of the 2015 field season. Not only
are we engaging larger numbers of people worldwide, we are also
emphasizing a community approach to our education programs,
focusing our science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) efforts on a limited number of locations around the coun-
try to expose students to a deeper understanding of STEM careers
and opportunities. The end of the first section focuses on the 2015
Nautilus expedition, which began in the Gulf of Mexico in April,
transited through the Panama Canal in May, and explored from
the Galápagos Islands to Canada from June through September
(pages 26–47), focusing primarily on the geological and biological
exploration of these poorly understood regions of the ocean.
The 2015 advancements and missions of NOAA Ship
Okeanos Explorer are described in the second section. Most notably,
we launched a multiyear Campaign to Address Pacific monument
Science, Technology, and Ocean NEeds (CAPSTONE) designed to
explore and characterize deepwater regions of the newly expanded
system of Marine National Monuments in the central and western
Pacific (pages 68–73). The objective is to provide authoritative,
science-based information to support decision making with
respect to these little-known ocean areas. On our way to the Pacific,
we mapped and explored deepwater areas around Puerto Rico
and the US Virgin Islands, work that included the first dive of our
dual-body ROV Deep Discoverer and companion vehicle Seirios
to 6,000 m in the Puerto Rico Trench (pages 62–67). The 2015
field season also included some significant advancements in our
ability to collect and disseminate more and higher resolution data
and information from the regions being explored (pages 56–57).
We added a Kraft Predator II manipulator and sample storage
box to Deep Discoverer, allowing for collection of biological and
geological samples that are critical for understanding more about
the Marine National Monuments (pages 52–55). We also contin-
ued our efforts to reach out to the scientific community, decision
makers, and the public at large, including establishment of two
new state-of-the-art Exploration Command Centers at the NOAA
Inouye Regional Center in Honolulu and the University of Hawaii
at Manoa (pages 74–75).
The new command centers join a growing list of shore-based
Internet2-enabled facilities around the world that can access live
video feeds and other data sets in real time from NOAA Ship
Okeanos Explorer, E/V Nautilus, or any other telepresence- enabled
oceanographic vessel. The ability to engage teams of scientists,
educators, students, and others at Exploration Command Centers,
as well as the progress being made on Internet1 and mobile
access, continues to enhance the way in which we are exploring
the global ocean. Using these new technologies, we can exponen-
tially increase the number of participants contributing to the first
observations of previously unknown areas, and we enable them to
work with the information long after the missions are over so they
can make additional discoveries.
We are excited to share the results of our 2015 discoveries with
you, and we look forward to your participation in the national
ocean exploration program.
Photo credit: NOAA OER