Cruise: Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park

Within Australia’s largest marine reserve, the recently established Coral Sea Marine Park, lies the Queensland Plateau, one of the world’s largest continental margin plateaus at nearly 300,000 square kilometers.

Log Post: Collapsing Under The Pressure

Saturday June 29th was an epic day.  Also among the 4 top traumatic experiences I have ever had at sea with a robot.  (All of which have come in the past 8 years!) Our dive started beautifully as we landed near the Hot Chimlets vents and set to work collecting microbes attached to a rock … Continued

Cruise: Australian Mesophotic Coral Examination

Ashmore Reef Marine Park is home to unique coral ecosystems: Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs). While the waters of Australia are famous for shallower coral systems such as the Great Barrier Reef, MCEs there (and around the globe) remain largely unknown and undocumented.

Log Post: Essential Items for Deep-Sea Science

The first, essential, feature of this cruise is coral. We start with research scientist Taylor holding a bundle of Desmophyllum. These precious coral samples record the environmental conditions of the ocean at the time their skeletons formed. As we do not (currently) have access to a time machine on R/V Falkor, we rely on using … Continued

Log Post: Canyon Exploration Begins

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) SuBastian has returned after a journey of more than 3000m below the sea surface, searching through one of the previously unexplored and deepest parts of Bremer Canyon. So what do we hope to find and why has this expedition already generated much public interest? The Bremer Canyon is a system of … Continued

Log Post: The Charismatic Microfauna of the Ocean

When phytoplankton (the single cell plants that live in the ocean) perform photosynthesis, they take up CO₂ from the atmosphere and convert it to organic carbon that becomes food for other organisms and put out O₂. When the carbon “fixed” by phytoplankton ultimately sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it can be considered removed … Continued

Log Post: Riding the Wave

My name is Carson Witte, and I have been on this ship since before Halloween. Wait – this cruise did not start until late November! Why have I been onboard longer than most of the crew, and what have I been doing? Well, here’s the story… Combining Datasets The headline feature of this research cruise … Continued

Log Post: The Ocean Skin

My name is Una Miller and, as a PhD student at Columbia University, I study how the ocean and atmosphere interact. On this research cruise, I am acquiring infrared (IR) imagery of the sea surface that will allow us to study the precise boundary over which this interaction occurs… the cool-skin layer! Visualizing The Invisible … Continued

Log Post: Ocean Hues

My name is Kelly Luis and I am a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. I study ocean color from remote sensing platforms and on this cruise, I am ground-truthing ocean color measurements from UAVs and satellites. Hawaiian Blue Water Growing up in Hawai’i, the ocean’s blue hues were the backdrop to my childhood. … Continued