Chief Bosun Jerrod Hozendorf watches as ROV Deep Discoverer (D2) is deployed from the aft deck of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. D2’s powerful lighting, high definition camera and newly installed sample collection equipment (drawers, boxes, an advanced manipulator, and positionable illumination system) are visible.

Chief Bosun Jerrod Hozendorf watches as ROV Deep Discoverer (D2) is deployed from the aft deck of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. D2’s powerful lighting, high-definition camera, and newly installed sample collection equipment (drawers, boxes, an advanced manipulator, and positionable illumination system) are visible. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana. Download larger version (jpg, 9.7 MB).

Leg 3 Commences!
August 28, 2015

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer departed Pearl Harbor, Oahu, this morning to commence Leg 3 of the Hohonu Moana expedition. This cruise leg is supported by NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program and will focus on recovering instruments and examining known sites offshore of Oahu and the Big Island and exploring unknown seamounts in the Geologists Seamounts group. The first dive was planned for this afternoon at Makapuu, located about six nautical miles off the easternmost point of Oahu. After deploying the ROV today, a problem was discovered with the hanging block and the vehicles were quickly recovered. The team spent the afternoon troubleshooting the block, and the dive was cancelled. Mapping transit operations commenced in the evening and the ship is currently en route to Keahole off the west coast of the Big Island for Dive 02 of the expedition, planned for tomorrow morning.