Deep Submergence News

In November 2020 I wrote a column in MREN that discussed the right of people to engage in crazy marine ventures. The example I used in that column was an attempt to row from South America to Antarctica. In it I also made note of the inherent unseaworthiness of single-handed ocean racing and noted that such foolishness often resulted in the public spending lots of money providing rescue services.The Ocean Gate Expedition Titan venture has now managed to set an entirely new standard…

The U.S. Navy's next Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship will be named USNS Robert Ballard (T-AGS 67), Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro announced on Wednesday.The name selection follows the tradition of naming survey ships after explorers, oceanographers and distinguished marine surveyors. Widely known as a discoverer of the final resting place of the R.M.S. Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard is a retired U.S. Navy Commander, former director of the Center for Ocean Exploration…

The U.S. Navy’s three Global class oceanographic research ships (AGORs) have received a new lease on life. The ships-- R/V Thomas G. Thompson (AGOR 23), R/V Roger Revelle (AGOR 24) and R/V Atlantis (AGOR 25)-- which entered service between 1991 and 1998--were built with 30-year expected service lives. Thanks to extensive overhauls on all three they have been returned to service with another 15 years of useful service.AGOR 23 is operated by the University of Washington; AGOR 24 is operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography…

The July/August edition of Marine Technology Reporter, the 15th Annual "MTR100", recognizes Graham Hawkes a subsea innovator, explorer, inventor and pusher of boundaries. A pioneer in the realm of ocean engineering, he’s designed and built more than 60 manned submersibles—everything from atmospheric dive suits to flying subs. As a test pilot, he’s maintained the deepest solo dive record for more than 20 years. He’s also the founder of HAWX Open Ocean LLC, created to design and…

The Indian Navy has inducted a Submarine Rescue System with a Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV) along with associated equipment.According to a government press release, this system has a side scan sonar for locating the position of the submarine in distress at sea, providing immediate relief by way of posting Emergency Life Support Containers with the help of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and thereafter rescuing the crew of the submarine using the DSRV itself.In a submarine accident, rapidity of response is most crucial to safety of life. To ensure early mobilisation, the System has been procured in a Flyaway configuration which…

Sunk by Japanese torpedoes near the end of World War II, heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis disappeared to the darkest depths of the Philippine Sea, where it remained undiscovered for more than 70 years. Recently a team of civilian researchers led by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen set out equipped with an arsenal of high-tech search equipment on a mission to locate the historic vessel last seen on July 30, 1945. The story of the USS Indianapolis is one of military might, heroism, tragedy, controversy and mystery.

South Korea will host a six-nation submarine exercise in its southern seas later in the month, Yonhap quoted the Navy as saying. The Pacific Reach 2016, involving the United States, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea will kick off on May 25 for a 10-day run in the waters off South Korea's naval port city of Jinhae on the southeastern edge of the Korean Peninsula as well as around Jeju Island, the Navy said. Another 12 foreign countries, including China and Russia, will join as observers, the Navy said. The focus of the exercise is on improving the participating countries' interoperability in submarine rescue operations involving the deployment of deep-submergence rescue vehicles and pressurized rescue modules.

The voyage data recorder (VDR) belonging to sunken cargo ship El Faro was found early Tuesday morning in 15,000 feet of water, about 41 miles northeast of Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bahamas, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced. A specialist team comprised of investigators and scientists from the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Tote Services, the owner and operator of El Faro, located the VDR using remotely operated undersea search equipment. Video footage showing El Faro's VDR is available here. At about 1 a.m.

Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor returns from the first ever expedition to systematically characterize the rarely explored Mariana Back-Arc. HAGANTA, GUAM – A diverse team of scientists are returning from a 28-day expedition onboard R/V Falkor that has more than doubled the number of known hydrothermal vent sites in the Mariana Back-arc region. This area, west of the Mariana Trench, is where plate spreading and submarine volcanism are concentrated. Several momentous findings were made, including the discovery of one of the deepest vents ever found. Another important outcome was the discovery of an extremely rare recently-erupted underwater lava field that is likely only a few months old.

Yesterday marked the christening of the U.S. Navy’s new state-of-the-art Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) scientific research vessel R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27) at the Dakota Creek Industries shipyard in Anacortes, Washington. According to the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the newest research vessel will join its six-vessel research fleet next year. Each vesselis assigned to a U.S. oceanographic institution or university, and is operated by a 20-person university crew (up to 24 scientists can be accommodated on Neil Armstrong for research missions lasting up to a month).

Companies operating in the marine science and ocean technology have only one more month to submit an abstract for next year’s Oceanology International 2014 conference. Taking place at London ExCeL between Tuesday and Thursday, March 11 and 13, 2014, the next Oceanology International is due to be the busiest of its series, with already 86.6% of exhibition spacebooked and eightone-day conference programs taking place alongside three new panel discussions. Professor Ralph Rayner is again the overall conference chairman, and that many key players in the relevant sectors have agreed to chair a program in their area of expertise. Dr. Professor Michael Bruno, Dean, Stevens Institute of Technology, U.S. Justin Crump, CEO, Sibyline Risk and Security Consultancy, U.K.

The 6,000-meter-rated remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system will be tested from 'Okeanos Explorer' in the 2013 field season. Dave Lovalvo, project manager for the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research’s Deep Submergence Group and his team has built and will be testing the ROV during the 2013 field season. The vehicle will be operated from the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, America's only U.S. government ship that is dedicated to the sole purpose of exploring the world’s oceans.

The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) seeks nominations & applications to fill Council and Committee vacancies in 2013. The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is an organization of academic oceanographic institutions working in cooperation with agencies of the U.S. Federal Government to ensure broad access to modern, well-operated, state-of-the-art research vessels, aircraft, submersibles, and facilities required to support a healthy and vigorous research and education program in the ocean sciences. UNOLS says it greatly values the contributions of our Council and Committee members. If you have an interest in serving on the UNOLS Council or a Committee you are encouraged to submit an application.

In the early days of subsea technology, there were a number of pioneers: men and women who stepped over the edge of what we knew about the underwater world. These individuals left the comfort of solid ground to explore beneath the waves and report back to the rest of us what they had seen. They pushed boundaries, raised the stakes and in some instances opened our minds to the possibilities. They were subsea visionaries. Today, those boundaries continue to be pushed, and undersea technology, now more than ever, is reaching new heights.

The Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron partners with Woods Hole Oceanographic Intitution to accelerate  technology development. The partnership aims to stimulate advances in ocean science and technology and build on the historic breakthroughs of the 2012 Cameron-led Deepsea Challenge expedition exploring deep-ocean trenches. The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of Cameron's unprecedented solo dive to 35,787 feet, almost 11,000 meters, to the deepest place on Earth - the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench - in the vertically-deployed vehicle he and his team engineered…

OceanWorks International has again been authorized by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Note 5000 to perform Deep Submergence Systems Scope of Certification (DSS SOC) work in support of designated submarine rescue and intervention systems. The authorization is a renewal of the existing Note 5000 authorization which has been held by OceanWorks International since September 8th, 2011. The authorization is based on OceanWorks International having demonstrated, as verified by regular NAVSEA audits…

Taking another major step in sleuthing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has determined what chemicals were contained in a deep, hydrocarbon-containing plume at least 22 miles long that WHOI scientists mapped and sampled last summer in the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Moreover, they have taken a big step in explaining why some chemicals, but not others, made their way into the plume.

It’s been called everything from the Graveyard of the Atlantic to Torpedo Junction. By whatever name, the seas off the coast of North Carolina during World War II were the site of a devastating period for the United States, during which dozens of ships—mostly merchant vessels—were sunk by German U-Boats. Today, the remains of those ships, along with several U-Boats, rest at the bottom of the Atlantic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that from January to August 1942, more than 50 vessels were lost to the U-Boat assault.

OceanWorks International To Deliver A-Frame Template for Submarine Rescue to Royal Canadian Navy. OceanWorks International has been awarded a contract by the Canadian Department of National Defense for another key piece of equipment which will enable submarine rescue cooperation and interoperability with the U.S. Navy. The A-Frame Template Kit is designed to work along with the Ship Interface Template Set (SITS) previously delivered to the Department of National Defence by OceanWorks International in March of 2010.

The christening and launch of a car carrier, named the EMERALD ACE, took place today at the Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), for delivery to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. The ship represents the last commercial vessel to be built at the Kobe Shipyard in consequence of ongoing reorganization of MHI's production structure in the company's Shipbuilding & Ocean Development business segment. Delivery of the vessel to owners is slated for late June. The EMERALD ACE, hull No.1296 built at the Kobe Shipyard, measures about 200 meters (m) in overall length, 32.26 m in breadth and 34.52 m in depth.

OceanWorks International has been awarded phases 1 and 2 of a 3 phase contract by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to assist with the re-certification of life support systems on the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin (DSV Alvin). Certification for manned diving operations will be provided under the authority of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). The DSV Alvin is currently midway through the Alvin Upgrade Project…

OceanWorks International has been awarded a contract by the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) to instrument a cable termination for a ground breaking tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy. The project includes the design, manufacture and integration of the subsea instrumentation, shore station, and commissioning. FORCE is deploying four power cables to connect prototype instream tidal turbines to a dedicated electrical sub-station. By providing this infrastructure, FORCE is lowering the ‘barrier to entry’ for turbine manufactures to test their equipment in one of the most demanding tidal environments. The planned deployment will take place in Atlantic Canada’s Bay of Fundy, which is renowned for having the highest tidal range in the world.

OceanWorks International again receives authorization from U.S. Navy to perform Deep Submergence Systems Scope of Certification (DSS SOC) work. OceanWorks International has again been authorized by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Note 5000 to perform DSS SOC work in support of designated submarine rescue and intervention systems. The authorization is a renewal of the existing Note 5000 authorization which has been held by OceanWorks International since September 8th, 2011.