Our diving season will begin soon, in partnership with NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, and the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Watch the live video feeds on the Okeanos Explorer homepage!
May 12 – May 24
We will be testing ROV Deep Discoverer and ROV Seirios during a shakedown and sea trial expedition aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. The tests will also include a trial run of a new suction sampling device the GFOE engineering team developed on ROV Deep Discoverer. The operations will begin in Pascagoula, Mississippi and end in Key West, Florida.
June 20 – July 12
The southeastern continental margin of the United States, the Blake Plateau, and the Bahamas have extensive deep-sea coral and chemosynthetic communities as well as maritime heritage sites that are poorly explored. We will be conducting ROV operations in this area, beginning in Port Canaveral, Florida and ending in Norfolk, Virginia.
July 15 – August 1
We will be participating in an emerging technologies expedition that will be testing new technologies to further the field of ocean exploration. The operations will begin in Norfolk, Virginia and end in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
August 11 – September 1
The GFOE team will be partnering with the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries for a three-week exploration of the deep waters of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 100 nautical miles offshore of Galveston, Texas. The team will use ROV Yogi to observe coral reef biodiversity, mesophotic coral spawning for the first time in the Sanctuary, and analyze the genetics of black coral. The expedition will be live-streamed through the use of telepresence for education and outreach.
Stay tuned for the livestream on the GFOE page!
August 23 – September 15
We’ll be exploring Atlantic continental margin, and area known to have many submarine canyons and seamount. These landscapes provide habitats for numerous species of ecological and commercial interest and are prone to landslides that can reveal geological structures of interest. The operations will begin in Halifax, Nova Scotia and end in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
