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It has now been 25 days since we all boarded Falkor in Broome, Western Australia, and it is hard to appreciate that our cruise ends tomorrow in Darwin, the Northern Territory of Australia. This voyage actually began a lot earlier – in October 2011, when I first learned the Schmidt Ocean Institute was thinking of bringing … Continued
After 23 days at sea we are now in the middle of our two and a half day transit from Scott Reef to Darwin. Over the past three days we have successfully recovered the instruments we deployed almost three weeks ago, including those at three deep mooring sites within South Scott lagoon and at 26 … Continued
Today was our last day at Scott Reef. While most of the science crew were busy packing the equipment and clearing out the lab a few dedicated scientists and crew worked hard, in less than ideal conditions, to again calibrate the EK60. This acoustic device has been collecting vast amounts of acoustic data detailing objects … Continued
Scott Reef’s shallow areas support at least 230 species of scleractinian (hard) corals. Taxonomists who have collected samples at Scott Reef in previous years estimate a range of 250-300 reef building coral species across the shallow reef areas. This is considerably less than the approximate 600 species found in the ‘Coral Triangle’, an area of … Continued
This time-lapse video depicts operation at one station illustrating the amount of activity and people involved in 24 hours of station work. Filmed over a continuous 24 hour period this short video should help explain why after almost a month at sea, we have over 12 terrabytes of data! The scientists and crew onboard Falkor have been working … Continued
For the past few nights the ROV team have had the opportunity to re-visit a number of sites across south Scott Reef lagoon looking for long term changes in benthic community health. The deep water coral communities were surveyed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in 2007 as part of an impact assessment … Continued
Science at sea is, above all else, a team effort. Scientific activities performed on Falkor require the ship’s crew and science party to work hand-in-glove; from ROV dives to CTD casts to work boat operations, every task is carefully choreographed to ensure objectives are met effectively, efficiently, and safely. And like a good dance routine, … Continued
Today we are on station at the eastern corner of South Scott lagoon examining the connection between the lagoon and the open ocean. By taking continuous oceanographic samples at the one site we can estimate the net pumping, driven by the tide, of open ocean water into the lagoon. At South Scott Reef lagoon there are … Continued
Today, 25 April 2015, marked the 100th anniversary of the historical event whereupon the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, Turkey. Falkor’s crew and visiting science party took time in the morning to commemorate the selfless heroism of the troops that sacrificed their lives so that, not only … Continued
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld “There are known knowns… there are known unknowns… and there are unknown unknowns”. Today we went searching for unknown unknowns — that is “bumps” in old admiralty charts of the seafloor that indicated seamounts or shoals on the shelf break north of Scott Reef. Little was known of these features before … Continued
