More from Megan’s adventures:

 

While I was in Rhode Island I had the chance to spend several days at the Inner Space Center, part of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.  The ISC is the control home-base for ocean exploration occurring globally on the R/V Nautilus and NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer. As many times as I repeat this number it will still remain shocking: 95% of our ocean is unexplored!  95%!!?   These ships use deep-diving ROVs (remotely operated vehicles named Hercules and Argus) to explore ocean depths beyond human limitations. The ISC provides video and data support to live feed content in real-time, thus opening access to the bottom of the ocean to anyone with an internet connection!

Thanks to the fantastic help of Media Manager, Alex DeCiccio, I create this video blog to share the facility and experience. I’m excited about this new format, and as always love feedback.

 

My visit fell during the last few days of this year’s field season with a live ROV feed beaming in from Aegean Sea depths off Turkey. I was sitting in the control room when the ROV came upon a shipwreck over 2,000 years old. The moment of realization recognizing what was laying before my eyes was shared only seconds after the pilots saw it on the far-side of the world.  This ocean exploration work is fascinating!  I was equally impressed with all the mechanisms in place to share these discoveries with new people. Nautilus Live broadcast daily webisodes on NautilusLive.org. ISC works hard at integrating exploration education into communities and schools using touch screen outreach platforms like this one.

 

 

The next Nautilus field season will be in the Caribbean summer/fall 2013.  This visit gave me the chance to see a visionary plan for combining science, exploration, media and entertainment.  I loved the role of on board educators who field questions from a global live audience and help interpret the discoveries of Hercules in real time. Perhaps by next year I might be one of the cheerful voices you hear on the NautilusLive daily updates. Who knows?

 

Huge thank you to Dr. Dwight Coleman for giving my visit the green-light and for sharingNautilus footage for the piece. Thank you to Dr. Robert Ballard for his continue commitment to exploring the oceans and for hosting this experience.  Thank you to Alex DeCiccio for his camera work and encouragement and patience walking me through the massive data collection you curate. This awesome adventure was coordinated by Anya Watson, former NA Rolex Scholar and brand-new Diving Safety Officer for the University of Rhode Island.

 

As always I would love to connect with you more about this adventure or others. Reach me through the comments below, via Megan Cook-Ocean Ambassador on Facebook, email NARolexScholar2012@owuscholarship.org, or tweet me @MeganCook33.