NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Onward and Downward, Accomplishments and Highlights from the 2019 Field Season

• Main Author: NOAA OER and NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer Mapping Team
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository 2020
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom_seminars/298; https://scholars.unh.edu/context/ccom_seminars/article/1297/type/native/viewcontent/299.jpg_AWSAccessKeyId_AKIAYVUS7KB2IXSYB4XB_Signature_bTcmEJFlZEqI51mLmE5xn8Th_2BsE_3D_Expires_1725029636

Over the past ten years, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER)—utilizing “America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration†the Okeanos Explorer—has led over 100 exploratory ocean mapping missions covering a cumulative area of 1.9 million sq. km of seafloor. During the 2019 field season, the ship mapped over 175,000 sq. km. of seafloor (an area larger than the state of Florida) while revealing stunning new insights on deep sea biology, geology, and archaeology in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. Key Okeanos highlights from the year, collaborations between NOAA OER and the CCOM community, and OER’s mechanisms to further ocean mapping will be presented. The Okeanos Explorer continues to contribute to several national and international marine research campaigns, including the Southeast Deep Coral Initiative, the DEEP Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral/Canyon/Cold seep Habitats (DEEP SEARCH) program, the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation, the Seabed 2030 Project, and the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Program. Presenter Bio Meme Lobecker is the head of mapping operations for NOAA OER and Okeanos Explorer. She has eighteen years of international seafloor mapping experience, including ten with NOAA OER. She holds a master degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, and a bachelors in Environmental Studies from The George Washington University. Derek Sowers is a Physical Scientist with NOAA OER as part of the Mapping Team that plans, leads, and executes ocean exploration missions on NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. Derek is also a Ph.D. candidate in the UNH Oceanography program. He has a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire, an M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University, and has participated in 26 ocean research expeditions to date. Mike White, a native of Long Island, New York, took a deep interest in ocean science at a young age growing up in and on the water. After graduating from the State University of New ...