By Tara Smithee, Mapping Intern - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
April 2, 2012
Sunrise in the Northern Gulf of Mexico from the Okeanos Explorer deck. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico Expedition 2012. Download larger version (jpg, 6.4 MB).
Working at sea has been both an incredible personal and professional experience for me. The Okeanos Explorer is filled with amazingly skilled and passionate people who have had such incredible experiences during their lives, from diving a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on the Titanic, to filming in Antarctica, swimming with dolphins, and SCUBA diving with sharks.
Video footage captured by the Little Hercules remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and Seirios camera platform during the April 18 ROV dive from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer during the Gulf of Mexico Expedition 2012. The dive was conducted at a site located south of the Biloxi Dome, where sonar data acquired by the ship in 2011 suggested relatively strong indicators of gas seeps in the water column. During the dive, we located and ground truthed the source of the gas seeps seen in the sonar data and explored new seafloor habitats. Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico Expedition 2012. Download (mp4, 213.5 MB).
The ROV team has used Little Hercules and Serios to film vibrant deep-water communities of corals, anemone, invertebrates, fish, and sponges that have rarely if ever been seen alive. My own small experience here inspires me to continue to explore, to discover, to ask difficult questions, and to interact with people across the world.
Image of an underwater river feature on the seafloor in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Colors indicate depth. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico Expedition 2012. Download larger version (jpg, 393 KB).
As an intern, I stood for three weeks as a mapping watch stander, learning to use the software for mapping the seafloor with the Okeanos Explorer’s multibeam sonar. With one pass over an area, we can generate a high-resolution map of the underlying seafloor five kilometers wide or more. This is such an important tool that will further illuminate marine geology, ocean water flow, and many other aspects of ocean research.
I am so excited to see the future, and I hope the discoveries of the Okeanos Explorer will inspire further conservation of important marine resources and unique biological areas. I am occasionally inclined towards poetry, so I have offered a summation of my interaction with and hopes for the sea; click on the image below to read "Song of the Sea."
by Tara Smithee
And the oceans, oh! They’re splendid too
Greens and grays and deepest blue
With moods that swing like summer squalls
Echoed in waves and seabird calls
The mild mare and plunging stallion
Have saved or sunken sloop and galleon
All ships that choose to dare across
Face the eerie risk of loss
But what joy to sail across those waves!
Under swaths of stars and past seaside caves
With weeks of time when land is so far
It can only be tracked using sextant and star
And nights when black waves glitter with light
Small creatures that flash and fly out of sight
With the undulation of the sea
What a journey it must be
For single drip of water clear
To venture to the blue frontier
And sink down to the darkest deep
Where glowing squid and fishes sleep
Where smoky vents on ocean floor
Spew heated plume from Earthen core
And deepest canyons ever grown
Hide creatures strange and so unknown
They’ve only just been seen alive
So dark, so deep they like to dive
Fewer folk have seen this place
Then walked the moon in outer space
The mysteries the ocean holds
Enchanting to the young and old
From vibrant shrimp to noble whale
They weave an endless, complex tale
A perfect web, a set design
A billion, billion things align
To bring you tuna fish and rye
Sushi, or a crab cake fry
And when a piece is taken out
A species lost or tossed about
A thread of high-hung tapestry
Unravels from the edge, you see
These tattered holes can ill support
The rest of linked marine cohort
And then the web begins to fade
The manta rays and clams of jade
Distorted till you cannot tell
What was there before it fell
Or how the silk threads used to be
‘Ere lost to all eternity
So mankind must retreat a pace
With honest heart and humble face
To let go of the fishing pole
The daily catch, the quota goal
And set aside great swaths of sea
As rare and wild sanctuary
Where reef can build without the fear
Of heavy trawler dragging gear
And fish as rare as buffalo
Can have a safer place to grow
Yet polluted water has no bound
It circulates the world round
So globally, we must dictate
A plan for ocean’s long term fate
Then hold the seas boldly before
Dollar bills or political war
For through all time on earth the sea
Supports each life from worm to tree
Well I’ve seen reefs that soon will fade
The manta rays and clams of jade
The sharks that wait for swinging tide
And octopi that like to hide
The magic that the ocean holds
Worth more than all the world’s gold
Is set into your hands tonight
Take care of it and hold it tight
And one day your young child may see
All the ocean has shown to me
