Going Deep to Rise Above: Utilizing Telepresence to Overcome Obstacles to Sea-going Exploration & Outreach during a Pandemic

Abstract:

Ocean Exploration Trust successfully conducted a nearly four-month at-sea field season, virtually bringing along a large team of scientists and the public, in spite of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus typically carries 48 people including a science party of 6-10, 3 collegiate-level interns, and 3 educators in addition to the operational team on each expedition. To reduce the risk of introducing COVID-19 to a vulnerable shipboard environment, non-essential participants stayed ashore for each of our 8 expeditions this year, including most or all science team members and all interns and educators. This reduced our 2020 shipboard teams to 50-70% capacity. Robust planning, communications, and science tools were added to complement existing telepresence tools, allowing both scientific exploration and outreach to continue. The results exceeded expectations: a richer and larger shoreside research team engaged in each expedition and a popular series of live events showcased the diversity of talent involved in ocean exploration. Over four months, 54 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives were conducted with live streaming of subsea video to shore, where teams of researchers viewed the video and graphical displays of oceanographic data. Scientists communicated with each other and logged observations in a text-based chat software, while 1-2 participants orally lead the dives from home. The voices of dive leads were broadcast to the public-facing Nautiluslive.org website as well as to shipboard watch standers, producing a single conversation amongst the team regardless of location. Occasionally, an outreach specialist would participate orally from shore to host live Q&A with the watch-standing team. Feedback from the public and scientific community was overwhelmingly supportive of the effort. Despite the challenges, this year has pushed telepresence to a new paradigm, accelerating the pace at which we created and tested new ways of conducting both science and outreach. The increased inclusivity and opportunities for participation will continue in the future regardless of pandemic restrictions. Additional information and results, including dive and outreach event broadcast recordings can be found on the NautilusLive website.