Pilot, this is dive super. Is everyone in the control room ready to launch? We are ready to launch. Copy that.
Alright deck, let's launch D2.
Alright, we're on our way.
Welcome to the Okeanos Explorer. We are sailing on the 100th ocean exploration expedition.
I am Commander Nicole Manning, the Commanding Officer of the Okeanos Explorer.
What does ocean exploration mean to me? Well, what does basic research mean?
I think it's one of the most important types of research that we do.
If you think about it, ocean exploration and basic research in general are the first steps that lead us to the scientific, technological, and engineering advancements.
Some of our greatest discoveries were because of happy accidents and that's what exploration sort of means to me.
So when Okeanos Explorer first was commissioned and first started out on its ocean exploration mission,
I had just started college, and I had no idea that my life and my career path would take me here.
I thought I was going to be working for SeaWorld or learning more about dolphins and playing with dolphins every day.
I quickly learned that wasn't exactly what I was interested in,
and then even when I graduated from college and graduate school, I thought I was going to be doing shallow-water coral reef studies for the rest of my life,
so to find myself, seven years later, out on a deep-sea exploration mission is kind of shocking still to me, but I wouldn't change it for the world.
Kasey and I are similar age. I was going into college when the Okeanos started and I had maybe one lecture on deep-sea biology,
and once I saw organisms that inhabit the deep sea, I was like, "that's where I want to go, that's what I want to do!"
And 10 years later, I am helping to lead this cruise, which is almost giving me chills just thinking about it.
The Okeanos provides this opportunity for a number of scientists that are in the early stages of their career, to really get the experience and the knowledge to start leading our own cruises.
My name is Dan Rodgers. I'm an ROV engineer and pilot with the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration.
I've been working with the Okeanos program for about six years now,
and in my time working on the ship, with the D2 and Seirios ROVs,
been all over the Pacific, all over the Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, visited some of the most remote places on the planet,
and what I really appreciate and enjoy about this job is the sense of adventure and getting to go to places that I never would have gone to otherwise,
and seeing parts of the world and life that most people never see, not to mention going to some of the most remote and interesting ecosystems on the planet.
Hi, name is Lieutenant Rosemary Abbitt. I'm the Operations Officer aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, and I am fascinated by deep-sea exploration.
It's amazing to get an up-close view of some amazing animals that are several miles below my feet.
I just grew up watching Animal Planet every day, everything I could get my hands on, I mean, it didn't matter if it was marine biology or just actual biology, zoology, everything.
That's what I stayed out on the ocean. My grandfather was a fisherman and so he always loved picking up all these different species from the bottom of the ocean floor.
And now this is a good chance that I've had to actually see them in their natural habitat, where you normally won't find humans, just going down this far.
So we have the capabilities to go down to the deepest depths, it's like Star Trek underwater, literally boldly going where nobody has gone before,
and getting to see all these cool and interesting creatures, sometimes new, which is even better.
I guess the reason why I got into ocean exploration, started when I was much younger, I grew up on the coast of Maine,
and I spent pretty much all my time down in the tide pools. It was one of those things that I was always trying to go to the tide pool that was further, deeper.
And during the windy days, I'd run up to the house and I'd grab a glass pie pan to be able to put on the top so I could be able to see clearly to the bottom.
As I got older, I decided to study deep-sea robotics, and then through that, that allowed me to realize that robots could expand the human capabilities underwater.
Now that I'm aboard the Okeanos Explorer and in essence, I'm still pretty much the same old kid that I was before,
however, now the technology has improved from the glass pie pan, I now have an ROV and an HD camera to be able to go down to the bottom of the ocean with,
my tide pool has grown from a small one off the coast of Maine to the whole ocean.
I'm Shannon Hoy. I'm from NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research,
and I actually started on the Okeanos Explorer 10 years ago as an Explorer-in-Training, when I was an undergraduate in college and 20 years old, so it feels like a lifetime ago.
But now I'm back, it's my first time as a mapping lead for an ROV expedition and it's the 100th cruise, and I'm so excited because this has shaped my entire career trajectory as well as my life, being out on the seas and sailing for ocean exploration.
I love what I do and I love supporting science and I'm so happy to be back with OER after all of these years.
This is my first ROV expedition and it's been a really great opportunity to engage the younger generation,
the students that are in college now and really raise their awareness to the importance of exploring and mapping and understanding more about the deep sea.
So do you teach a lot of your students about the deep sea? Because looking back, I think I had one lecture class in all of college and graduate school about the deep sea.
You know, I cover it, but I really will be incorporating a lot more of the video and the images into my class after this experience,
because I think it's stuff that will get them excited.
Hi, my name is Lieutenant Junior Grade Brianna Pacheco and I am currently augmenting aboard Okeanos Explorer,
and I am very honored to be aboard for the 100th ocean exploration expedition.
And, to me, ocean exploration is incredibly important because I want to inspire younger people and the next generation to pursue careers in science and ocean exploration.
Before coming here, I was working at a radio-carbon dating lab, and before that, I was a park ranger, and that's when I first heard about NOAA.
And so I searched on my own. What is NOAA? What's the NOAA Corps? And that's when I came across the video from Ms. Pacheco and GFOE and basically that's what hooked me on to that.
I knew I wanted to be a NOAA Corps officer, specifically on the Okeanos Explorer,
and to me it's the craziest idea that I used to watch the livestream almost every single day and now I sleep 200 feet away from D2 and Seirios.
First time I saw a video, I was coming back from Uganda, I was working as a teacher over there for a couple of years.
It was a video of this almost white, translucent octopus, which was named Casper,
filmed by this guy here, Art Howard.
It's really amazing to think about, we're taking images from three miles down in the ocean to people's cell phones or computers.
It's the greatest storytelling device there is now. We're able to educate, entertain, and inspire.
I'm a firm believer that the video has a way of connecting with people in unique ways that both of y'all have been connected.
In different ways. I think the power of the video that comes out of the Okeanos is just, has the potential to change a lot people.
That's what's so exciting to me, that every day we get to put the ROV down, turn the cameras on, and discover something new.
I'm not a PhD-level scientist or anything like that, but his videos inspired me and everybody here to join the NOAA Corps. And look at me, I'm sitting here with him and with everybody else, with the team.
One of the really cool things that I like about my job here is that you work with all the people.
One of our most valuable assets with this program are the people and the experiences and the personalities that come with that.
We've had a lot of people come through the program over the years, and just to get to work with all these people, the engineers, the scientists, the video people, the mapping expertise,
it is just very cool to be able to be a part of that, and I have learned so much from so many people coming through here.
At first, I was just looking at being able to do some extra work, make extra money, but I later found out there's a lot more to it.
The experience of being able to get exposed to this kind of environment. I had no idea it takes so much time, people, and talent to be able to pull together something like this.
I am more scientific than I have ever imagined to be, and I've enjoyed every bit of it.
It has given me a lot of experience that I'm able to tell my own family, even my own children and their children, my grandchildren.
They look at me like, "wow, you know so much of the ocean." Of course, it's my job, to support the scientific world that explores the ocean.
When I first switched careers, from being a terrestrial biologist to doing science film making, I had no idea that something like this was possible.
When I got the opportunity to make videos about the deep ocean, I jumped at the chance. And it's been an absolutely amazing experience for me,
and to be part of the 100th cruise on board the Okeanos Explorer is fantastic, and I hope to keep doing it, I'm excited to be part of the 200th cruise.
I'm just happy to be, in some small way, a part of the discoveries that this cruise makes, that this program makes,
and to me, ocean exploration isn't just about discovering crazy creatures and interesting geological features,
it's also about answering those questions that we didn't even know to ask.
And that to me is the most exciting part about being a part of this program and being a part of this ship and cruise.
Nothing can compare to this experience. It's the best part of my life, and I'm telling you, this is the most fun you can ever have.
Great to be with Okeanos Explorer. Best way to experience the ocean.