I'm very proud that we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer,
because it's allowing us to reflect on the one hundred expeditions we've conducted over this last decade.
And all of the amazing discoveries we've made, that are so important for science,
but also for our economy and national security.
The Okeanos Explorer is a national asset.
Think about NASA. NASA has launched dozens of space probes to explore deep space.
We've mapped the surface of Mars and the Moon to a higher resolution than we've mapped own seafloor.
The deep sea is the largest habitat on Earth, it's the least explored habitat on Earth.
So it's the last, vast unexplored realm.
We're still really in the observation stage.
A pure natural history stage.
We're constantly bringing up stuff that has never been described before.
It's kind of remarkable for me to think that ten years have already passed.
It's exciting, it's great to see the program has grown a lot over that time.
There's a lot more participation since we first began.
There are scientists every year who look forward to the next field season starting.
It's like when do I get my Okeanos fix? I need to see other unexplored parts of the deep ocean.
I can remember very distinctly being on a dive when we found this immense sponge
that turned out to be the largest known sponge in the world.
Every dive there is something exciting, we're always going to see something new.
Okeanos Explorer just recently identified a new deep-sea coral reef track about eighty miles long off the U.S. East Coast.
That really is incredible.
That is like finding an Amazon rainforest, in all of its biodiversity, in the middle of the California desert.
We have elevated the importance of this program to the White House and they are really keen
on seeing us, or actually even amplify, the returns on investment we've made.
My experience in exploration was mostly with human occupied vehicles.
So I was pretty skeptical about telepresence enabled exploration.
So the opportunity that I had being out on the Okeanos Explorer for the Mariana Trench expedition was really eye opening for me.
Not only was I participating in the dive with the other science lead but with scientists calling in from all over the world.
Literally all over the world.
So it was very, very cool and it really did take advantage of that excitement and participation in the discovery.
So you don't have to have a sponge biologist, a fish biologist, or a crustacean biologist on the ship at one time because that's not feasible.
It makes it so much easier for broader participation on these missions of discovery.
The interest and the buy-in among the scientific community has just grown exponentially.
A lot of folks have seen the value of the program through the delivery of real, tangible results and discoveries.
And have become excited about it and shared that with their colleagues.
The fact the program has not just remained for ten years, but has really flourished
is a testament to its inherent value of the scientific community.
For about three years, I worked with the Okeanos Explorer mapping team
and I think, as of today, they're very close to two million square kilometers of seafloor mapped.
And that's just an incredible contribution.
When we think about the work the Okeanos Explorer has done in mapping the seafloor over the last ten years
is adding an immense amount of information to our understanding of the physiography of the seafloor
and the different biological and physical processes that are going on there.
As a marine geologist, there have been a number of discoveries that I have been excited about
The brine lakes
and then the asphalt extrusion we know as the "tar lilies"
I think for myself personally, the discovery of the seafloor methane seeps off the East Coast of the United States
has been probably the thing that I've been most excited about because it has really fundamentally altered my work.
We went from being aware of potentially no seeps on the East Coast to find seven, eight, maybe even nine hundred.
And I think the biggest impact of that has been not only the initial discovery by the Okeanos Explorer,
but the fact that, in many cases, scientists have been able to take the observations
and use those as the basis to support further research, further funding for research, and then return to these sites
and really explore them with even greater detail.
There are so many things that make the Okeanos program unique.
Starting with seeing parts of the planet that no one has seen before, collecting that baseline data
that is so important to make management decisions.
And the telepresence capability allows such an engagement that most other vessels don't have.
It means many more people get to be a part of that exploration and that science.
My first cruise with the Okeanos Explorer, when were in the Marianas, we found this hydrothermal vent
that still gives me goosebumps.
Ten stories tall, before that moment had never been imaged before, just gushing black super hot fluid.
It just was incredible.
I was watching that night and all of a sudden there was this black smoke and I was like "oh my gosh!"
"How cool is this, this is so exciting!"
The next day, I think the LA Times reported this and right after that there was a huge increase in the number of viewers.
So these types of discoveries really open people's eyes up to what is living in the ocean.
I mean it's easy for us to go outside and look up and see the stars
and envision what's happening in terms of space exploration.
It's not so easy, especially if you don't live on the coast, to figure out what's going on underwater.
Why it's important.
And I think having the telepresence enabled exploration has opened up the oceans
to hundreds of thousands of people who had not experienced that before.
Having that public engaged, having them with you being a part of the exploration
So many people that will never get the opportunity to step on board a ship ever in their life
and yet they're there with you as you're seeing those new animals, those new habitats, those new behaviors.
Telepresence and the Okeanos program truly democratizes ocean exploration and science.
And that's something that really shouldn't be undervalued.
Archaeology is a record of the past.
It's unique in that it is one of those things that tells us what people actually cared about,
what kind of things were important to them, what they did in their daily lives.
And working with the Okeanos Explorer we have learned a great deal more
about what has led up to our present relationship with the ocean.
I've been there for sights like the Japanese midget submarines lost in the early moments of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
These ships, still loaded with artifacts, are time capsules that speak to the past.
And so I think the power of the Okeanos Explorer, out there working and surveying
documenting and sharing is absolutely essential.
This is science for everyone.
Every time you go, every time you're brought down into the water you're going to find something new.
And that's the exciting part.
We have also taken some of the video files and have been able to develop 3D models
so that has been a tremendous boon in trying to actually interpret the site.
We publish on a public website, anybody can view it.
And it's been quite popular.
And that would not have been possible without getting the kind of high resolution and high quality video that we've gotten from the Okeanos Explorer.
If I could wave a magic wand, I'd have a fleet of Okeanos out there.
I think it's something that captures the public's imagination.
In an age in which we might that everything has been done, that there are no frontiers left
there still is this vast frontier that needs to be studied.
That need to be visited, that needs to be shared, and in some cases protected.
Exploration is incredibly important because it's the first step
in understanding our oceans.
It allows us to answer those basic questions, like what lives there?
Or, what habitats exist there?
And without those answers, without that crucial baseline data
we can't really effectively manage our oceans.
When we are planning our expeditions, we have our communication with managers who are interested in various resources.
And so we need to get some kind of look at what is the area that is either under consideration for protection or is already under protection.
Did we make the right decisions? Should we expand it? Should we move it?
Having that kind of information really is critical to us as managers to be able to appropriately protect those sites that we do feel are important.
And not worry about those that we know are not.
So being able to provide them with the data that they need
is a really important service that the Okeanos Explorer fulfills.
I think over the last ten years the Okeanos Explorer has
sort of blazed a trail
and served as a model for what
federally funded, community-driven ocean exploration can be.
And as I think about the next ten years, I think there are so many exciting opportunities
Every day I come into the office and know that the Okeanos Explorer is diving in the ocean somewhere
is a day when I expect my understanding of how the deep sea works
may be challenged or changed.
That the community's notions about processes of the deep sea
or relationships may evolve that very day based on what the ship sees.
So I think the value of exploration is that it allows us to push forward
and have those moments where we go, "Wow I really didn't expect that!"
"That's something completely new and that doesn't make sense based on what we thought we knew."
It's those moments that really push and advance science
and I think that's the true value of the exploration that the Okeanos Explorer does.