Message from the Under Secretary of Commerce 

for Oceans and Atmosphere & NOAA Administrator 2

Message from the Acting Director of NOAA’s Office 

of Ocean Exploration 3

Vision and Mission 5

Executive summary 6

Themes 

Ocean Exploration and Archaeology 8

Marine Life Inventory — Census of Marine Life 10

Habitat Characterization 11

Deep-Sea Corals 12

New Ocean Resources 13

Ocean Exploration Technology — New Sensors and Tools 14

New Exploration Ship 15

Education and Outreach 16

Map of 2004 Ocean Expeditions 20

Key Expeditions 

Submarine Ring of Fire 22

Mountains in the Sea 24

Return to Titanic 26

Russian-U.S. Arctic Census of Marine Life 28 

Gulf of Mexico Shipwreck Survey 30

Gulf of Alaska Seamounts 32

Operation Deep Scope 34

Estuary to the Abyss 36

Deep Sea Precious Corals 38

Acknowledgements 40

Photo Credits 41

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1
2

004 was a great year for the oceans and for NOAA Ocean Exploration! The

Commission on Ocean Policy issued its historic report and President Bush responded

with his Ocean Action Plan elevating ocean issues to the highest level. Meanwhile,

NOAA’s Ocean Exploration program continued to marvel and amaze the American

public with key discoveries that have expanded our knowledge of what resides in our oceans.

NOAA's 2004 expedition season resulted in discoveries of new species and new ranges for

known marine animals. Explorers observed an underwater volcanic eruption and liquid

droplets of carbon dioxide rising from the seafloor. They studied deep-sea corals and

associated habitats on underwater mountains and took a rare look at the interface of chemosynthetic and photosynthetic marine life. NOAA and Dr. Robert Ballard returned to the wreck of RMS Titanic in search of information 

to help marine archaeologists understand and protect this and other important shipwrecks of historical significance.

The exploration team examined submerged cultural resources and a NOAA-sponsored team deployed a camera

system to study marine life in unobtrusive ways. NOAA also organized multidisciplinary teams to explore and

research deep corals off the Carolinas, a habitat that until recently very little was known about. 

Because of scientific advances like these, people are starting to notice how important oceans are to every aspect of

our lives from food, weather and climate, energy, new medicines, transportation and recreation. Of course, as with

any scientific achievement, more questions are often raised. The challenge of uncovering our ocean’s secrets is as

vast as the ocean itself, but path-finding explorations to better understand, manage and protect our oceans are now

underway. 

In fiscal year 2005, NOAA's budget for ocean exploration increased substantially, up from about $13 million to

approximately $22 million, and the President's request for fiscal year 2006 is at the $22 million level. NOAA recently

took ownership of a former Navy ship to be converted as the nation’s only vessel dedicated to ocean exploration and

research. Coupled with the President Bush’s Ocean Action Plan, these investments will expand our scientific

knowledge of oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

We still know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean. Thanks to the work

detailed in these pages, that may soon change. NOAA is proud of our Ocean Exploration program and the value it

provides to the country. We look forward to building upon the program’s many successes as we continue the search

the depths of the ocean for answers to many of life’s greatest questions.

Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.

Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere &

NOAA Administrator 2

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

MESSAGE FROM THE UNDER SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR 

OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE & NOAA ADMINISTRATOR
F

or three years, I’ve been privileged to serve as Chief Scientist for NOAA’s Ocean

Exploration (OE) program. In 2004, I was asked to become the program’s Acting

Director, following CAPT. Craig McLean’s rotation to his next NOAA Corps billet, in

the NOAA National Ocean Service. As this report is written, NOAA is in the process

of selecting a permanent OE Director. Craig assembled a small but highly dedicated and

talented team. Under his leadership, they made impressive progress toward realizing the

ocean exploration goals in the 2000 report of the President’s Panel, “Discovering Earth’s Final

Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration.” Craig also enlisted the support of the U.S.

oceanographic community for this new and exciting program of ocean exploration.

The OE program is bringing together scientist-explorers in interdisciplinary teams, providing them with research

vessels and other special assets such as manned submersibles, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous

underwater vehicles. The program is also forging partnerships with oceanographic institutions, universities, and other

ocean-related programs such as the National Ocean Partnership Program and the Consortium for Ocean Research and

Education. Partnerships were also built within NOAA such as with the Arctic Research Office and the National

Undersea Research Program, and with other federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Parks

Service, U.S. Navy and the Minerals Management Service. These partnerships are significantly enhancing the

program’s ability to provide ocean scientists of every discipline with unique, new opportunities to explore the

oceans—especially in new areas—and to gain a much broader understanding of the ocean’s ecosystems and

biological, chemical, and physical environments. 

OE will soon initiate routine use of a technology with great potential to enable more ocean scientists to participate

in the program’s expeditions, and to make the expeditions more accessible to students, educators and the public at

large. This coming summer, an expedition to the Lost City vent field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge will be conducted

without the Chief Scientist of the cruise even being on board. This “telepresence” will be made possible by means

of satellite-to-Internet2 connectivity to bring real-time, live video and audio from the ship and from remote vehicles

on the ocean floor, to audiences ashore. This will significantly enhance the scientific capability of the expedition by

adding shore-based scientists to the mission team. Coupled with OE’s website (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov), live

transmission of the expedition will also enhance the programs’ mission-based curriculum and connect teachers and

their students directly with the excitement of ocean exploration. This real-time broadband capability will be a

standard resource for a new NOAA ship dedicated to explore the ocean, when the ship becomes operational in midto late-2007. 

I hope you enjoy our Annual Report. If you have questions about or suggestions for our program, please contact me

at: stephen.r.hammond@noaa.gov.

Dr. Stephen Hammond

Acting Director, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration

MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR OF NOAA’S OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

3

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT
4

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION
5

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

VISION AND MISSION

THE VISION

The oceans are the lifeblood of Earth. They cover more

than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, drive its weather,

and ultimately fuel all living creatures. Throughout

history they have been a vital source for sustenance,

transport, commerce, growth and inspiration. Yet for all

of our reliance on the oceans we have explored less

than five percent of their breadth and depth. 

Realizing the urgent need for a better understanding of

this critical global resource, and in response to growing

national concern over the state of the oceans, the U.S.

government empowered a panel of experts in 2000 to

develop a national strategy for ocean exploration. The

result was the creation of a National Ocean Exploration

Program (OE) in 2001 to be led by the nation’s ocean

agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA).

In 2004, OE’s vision was extended and

sharpened when NOAA received from

the Navy a vessel that will become,

after 12 to 18 months in a shipyard, a

state-of-the-art platform for ocean

exploration.

THE MISSION

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration was created to

investigate the oceans for the purpose of discovery and

the advancement of knowledge. NOAA’s OE program

signaled a turning point for this nation’s ocean

exploration efforts and it represents a bold and

innovative approach. It infuses teams of multidisciplinary scientist-explorers with a “Lewis and Clark” spirit

of discovery, and equips them with the latest

exploration tools - some pioneered specifically to

support OE missions. These new exploration tools are

taking researchers to some of the deepest and least

explored regions of the world’s oceans and as a result,

a more thorough understanding of the deep ocean

realm is evolving. 

OE’s mission fits into four distinct areas:

Mapping and characterizing the physical,

biological, chemical and archaeological aspects of

the ocean;

Developing a more thorough understanding of

ocean dynamics and interactions at new levels;

Developing new sensors and systems to regain U.S.

leadership in ocean technology, and;

Reaching out to the public to communicate how

and why unlocking the secrets of the ocean is well

worth the commitment of time and resources, and

to benefit current and future generations.

OE dedicates 10 percent of its annual budget

to various outreach and education activities,

and is committed to working towards

improved science literacy and developing

the next generation of ocean explorers,

scientists, and educators. By tapping into

NOAA’s Ocean Explorer Web site and

other outreach initiatives, Americans

become “citizen explorers” and connect

deeply with their own instinctive fascination with

the oceans. 

Expeditions and projects undertaken in 2004 were built

on OE’s previous three years of discovery-based ocean

research. Results from the 2004 field season already

include new maps of previously unknown ocean areas,

the discovery of new marine species and habitats, and

volumes of new data for scientists, natural resource

managers and educators. 

Please read on to learn more about the discoveries

made and the new mysteries uncovered during 2004.

VISION AND MISSION
6

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

I

n FY 2004, OE operated with a budget of $13.1

million to support expeditions to unknown areas of

the world's oceans, to develop and test new and

evolving technologies, to bring the experiences of

scientists at-sea and the information they were

collecting into homes and classrooms, to organize and

distribute data and information, to develop summary

products and to support administrative and staff requirements. Sixty eight percent of the budget funded at-sea

expeditions and other science-related projects – the

heart of the NOAA Ocean Exploration program.

FY 2004 BUDGET OVERVIEW

At-Sea Expeditions ($7.9 million – 60%) At-sea

expeditions explored for new and unique habitats,

species and resources, and searched for signs of our

sunken marine heritage. OE supported large-scale,

multidisciplinary “voyages of discovery,” and smallerscale efforts to investigate mysterious phenomena such

as communities of corals and sponges that grow at

depths where sunlight does not penetrate. The

investment included funding of grants to the explorers

and expenditures for vessels, submersibles and other

tools and technology that make this work possible.

Other Science ($1 million – 8%) – This category

represented an investment in shore-based activities,

including the development, testing, and evaluation of

new and evolving technologies. It included projects

related to developing Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

(AUV), new mapping sensors, advanced underwater

optics, and meetings and workshops where the results

of exploration activities were discussed and presented,

or where expeditions were planned. 

Education and Outreach ($1.3 million – 10%) –

Because the ocean is a critical component of the global

ecosystem, OE invested to advance ocean literacy

among teachers, students, and other stakeholders. This

included development of education products related to

the at-sea expeditions – student lesson plans, teacher

workshops, and school curriculums. It also included

establishing partnerships with public and private organizations (museums, aquariums) that engage in ocean

exploration and science activities, and supporting the

award-winning NOAA Ocean Explorer Web site,

oceanexplorer.noaa.gov.

Data Management ($0.6 million – 5%) – Managing and

disseminating data and information and developing a

discrete set of products is essential to the program. 

OE leveraged its own resources with funding from 

other NOAA offices including the NOAA Library, the

National Oceanographic Data Center, the National

Geophysical Data Center, the National Undersea

Research Program, the National Coastal Data

Development Center, and others. Products included the

“Expedition Information System,” a Web-based Digital

Atlas to display results and a catalogue of video footage

from at-sea expeditions that is accessible through the

NOAA Library.

Operating Expenses and Human Capital ($2.3 million

– 17%) – Operating expenses included expenditures for

office space, equipment such as computers, and

communications. Human capital expenses covered the

NOAA Ocean Exploration program staff.

Human Capital

$1.2m (9%) Operating Expenses

$1.1m (8%)

Data Management

$0.6m (5%)

At-Sea Expeditions

$7.9m (60%)

EXPENSES BY BUDGET CATEGORY

Education

$1.3m (10%)

Other Sciences

$1.0m (8%)
7

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AT-SEA EXPEDITIONS

The heart of the NOAA Ocean Exploration involves

selecting, funding, organizing, conducting, and generating products from “Voyages of Discovery.” Each

year, the program solicits proposals that meet a specific

set of exploration criteria, and makes selections through

a peer-review process. Final decisions also factor in the

availability of resources such as ships, submersibles and

technologies.

Geographic Distribution –In FY 2004, the majority of

the investment and the greatest number of projects were

conducted in the Gulf of Alaska. However, the program

also invested in projects around the globe, from the

Northwest Hawaiian Islands (an area as extensive as the

continental United States), to the Mariana Arc, and the

Black Sea. Investments vary greatly depending on the

platforms and tools required and length of time at sea.

Thematic Distribution – Thematic distribution of at-sea

expeditions is a function of the proposal-driven process.

However, OE seeks a well- balanced program in these

themed areas: 

Habitat Characterization - These efforts focus on

describing habitat and species/habitat relationships. Efforts can explore large regions or specific

topographic features. 

Corals – These expeditions focus on collecting

information on deep-water corals or unique

shallow water coral systems. This includes efforts

that describe coral habitat and species/habitat 

relationships. 

Mapping – These projects include low resolution 

(> 10m) surveying and mapping in areas that have

never been surveyed, or high resolution (<10m)

surveys of areas that have only been surveyed at

low resolution. 

Marine Archaeology – These efforts involve

searching for suspected submerged cultural

resources, and characterizing them once found.

This includes, but is not limited to, wrecks of ships

and submersibles, as well as areas of previous

human habitation. 

Marine Life Inventories – Marine Life Inventory

projects describe and quantify species population,

diversity, distribution, and life history at regional to

site-specific scales. 

New Ocean Resources – These projects locate,

characterize, and collect organic and inorganic

materials, and assess their commercial potential. 

Technology – Cruises that focus on technology

involve developing, testing, and evaluating new

undersea technologies that have the potential for

improving future ocean exploration, research,

management, and education. 

Passive Acoustics – These projects involve the

application of passive acoustic technologies in new

areas, or to new problems, i.e., to observe fish,

marine mammals, and human activities in the

marine environment. 

DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS BY REGION - EXPEDITIONS

0.4

0.6

0.8Millions of Dollars$1.60

$1.20

$0.80

$0.40

$0.00

5 3

3 3

2 6 4 2 2 3 2

# = Missions

Gulf of

Alaska

Western

Pacific

Gulf of

Mexico

New

England

South

Atlantic

Bight Hawaii

Eastern

Pacific

MidAtlantic

Ocean

Arctic

MidAtlantic

Coast

Great

Lakes

Regions

DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS BY THEME - EXPEDITIONS Millions of Dollars $3.00

$2.50

$2.00

$1.50

$1.00

$0.00

$0.50

# = Missions

Habitat Archaeology Marine Life

Inventory

Coral Mapping Technology

9

9 9 4

4

4

Themes
S

ystematic mapping and proven

remote sensing techniques

are cornerstones of the

Office of Ocean Exploration, 

and serve as the operational

foundation for the program’s

maritime archaeology activities.

Focusing on the initial phases of

marine archaeology – discovery, investigation and inventory – Ocean Exploration

provided maritime heritage researchers with vessel

time, advanced technologies and financial support in

2004 to explore for, research and better assess our

nations’ maritime heritage.

In 2004, Ocean Exploration (OE) supported coast

research projects through academic partnerships with

archaeology programs in a number of states. Objectives

were to obtain a more accurate inventory of shipwrecks

and other submerged cultural resources and to assess

their historical significance. 

Systematic mapping was a critical component of each

project. One example was seen in the State of

Maryland’s project to use side scan sonar and magnetometer techniques to search for the War of 1812 British

tender HMS Mary, lost in Chesapeake Bay.

In addition, OE supported East

Carolina University’s (ECU) Maritime Studies Program with two

grants to investigate wrecks in

collaboration with coastal states.

One project investigated and

confirmed the identity of an 1860

Russo-American trader, the Kad’yak,

wrecked off its namesake, Kodiak Island,

Alaska. The NOAA ship Rainier provided

additional support by systematically mapping the

Kad’yak area with advanced multibeam sonar

technology. 

With OE support, ECU also continued their inventory of

shipwrecks near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. In its

third season, this database and remote sensing

inventory has resulted in a large number of significant

cultural resource finds. 

OE also helped sponsor Stony Brook University’s

archaeological investigation of the Hudson River

aboard the NOAA ship Rude using state-of-the-art

hydrographic systems to discover and map items from

the Revolutionary War era. This project marked the first

time the Rude was “chartered” by an academic group,

and the resulting partnership was valuable for NOAA,

Stony Brook University and the State of New York. 

OE continued to support programs internal to NOAA

such as continual site mapping of wrecks located 

in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and

sponsoring an expedition with the National Undersea

Research Center at the University of Connecticut to

investigate the wreck of the USS O-9, a U.S. Navy

submarine lost off the coast of New

Hampshire.

8

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

Ocean Exploration and Archaeology

Discovery through systematic mapping and investigation
Given the limited resources available to the maritime

heritage community in the U.S., OE regularly collaborated with federal partners to leverage resources and

best serve the shared goal of protecting historically

important maritime sites. These partnerships included

the National Park Service (NPS), the Minerals

Management Service (MMS) and the Naval Historical

Center (NHC). 

In 2004, OE supported the Minerals Management

Service with an archaeological and ecological

expedition led by C & C Technologies Inc. The

expedition in the Gulf of Mexico investigated a number

World War II shipwrecks at various depths. Scientists

wanted to determine the shipwrecks’ impact on the

environment, their rates of corrosion and the potential

for the ships’ propulsion fuel and their cargoes to

adversely affect the environment. Scientists also studied

9

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

the potential for decommissioned deep-sea oil drilling

rigs and production platforms to serve as artificial reefs. 

OE also supported the NHC center with two projects:

mapping and locating sunken aircraft lost in Lake

Michigan during World War II aircraft carrier training

exercises, and using remote sensing equipment to

locate the remains of the anti-slavery schooner USS

Alligator off the Florida Keys. 

Finally, OE supported an international reconnaissance

investigation of historical American vessels off the coast

of the United Kingdom near Filey Bay. Working with

NPS, OE focused on a wreck site thought to be possibly

the remains of Bonne Homme Richard, John Paul Jones’

warship from the Revolutionary War. 
Marine Life inventories describe and quantify

species population, diversity, distribution,

and life history at regional to site-specific

scales. This includes projects that investigate, describe,

and quantify vertebrates, invertebrates, macroorganisms and microorganisms.

In 2004, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration

supported the important objective to inventory marine

life in a number of ways, spanning nine expeditions and

projects. The office funded and helped organize

expeditions large and small that specifically focused on

marine life inventories and the Census of Marine Life

(CoML). 

Examples included supporting NOAA’s Arctic Research

Office with a major investment in a collaborative U.S.-

Russian Federation mission, to help establish a baseline

for a long-term census of marine life in the Arctic. The

expedition, in July and August aboard the Russian R/V

Professor Khromov, was the first mission following a

Memorandum of Understanding signed by NOAA and

the Russian Academy of Sciences. Data management

for the 2004 expedition is being coordinated with

National Oceanographic Data Center, the National

Climate Data Center, the National Geological Data

Center and the National Snow and Ice Data Center as

well as with universities and other appropriate organizations. Additional information is being collected by

U.S. and Russian long-term moorings set in the Bering

Strait during the mission.

Another significant expedition to inventory marine life

was “Operation Deep Scope” with Harbor Branch

Oceanographic Institution and other partners in the

Gulf of Mexico. This mission included the use of new

camera and lighting technology to image deep sea

marine life in new ways. In the past, bright lights and

noisy submersibles likely have hampered the process of

obtaining images of marine life for the purpose of

building inventories. In Operation Deep Scope, a newly

designed camera was placed on the seafloor with new

and unobtrusive lighting to obtain images of animals in

a more natural setting. In the very first hour the camera

was in place, it imaged a six foot squid believed to be a

new species. 

Other projects that focused on Marine Life Inventories

and directly or indirectly supported CoML included,

“Hidden Life in Nearshore Alaska,” where marine life

was studied in ice cores; “Eastern Pacific Sharks” and a

study of scavenger communities, both in Hawaiian

waters; and a study of Mid-Atlantic Ridge diversity. In

the New England region, the office supported a marine

life inventories in the Georges Bank and an analysis of

whaling records from times past.

In preparation for the 2005 field season, the office

funded a major study of marine life diversity in the

Banda Sea. 

10

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

Marine Life Inventory – Census of Marine Life
Many scientists on ocean

expeditions this year characterized new or poorly

understood benthic and pelagic

habitats and ecosystems.

Explorations included research

on undersea volcanoes, deepsea coral communities, the

Arctic, bioluminescent life, an

“estuary to abyss” transect, and

the ecological effects of World

War II shipwrecks. In each of

these unique areas, habitats were

assessed in some new way.

Habitats associated with undersea volcanoes were explored and characterized during

the Submarine Ring of Fire cruise to the Mariana Arc

volcanic chain in the western Pacific. Scientists studied

unique habitats that thrive in or near extreme vent 

site environments. Initial findings revealed that

macrofaunal communities vary greatly from seamount

to seamount. Understanding this mosaic pattern will

depend on more interpretation of the physical,

chemical and geological setting.

Seamount habitats were explored during the New

England Mountains in the Sea cruise where coral

(primarily octocoral) aggregations were studied to

determine their role in structuring seamount

communities. Biodiversity of seamounts was assessed,

examining the colonization dynamics of deep-sea

corals and analyzing the distribution and abundance 

of deep-sea fishes associated with the seamount

landscapes. Deep-sea coral samples were collected to

help understand the relationships between the various

taxa from various seamounts.

Operation Deep Scope took a fresh approach to

observing habitat. Through technological advances in

imaging, researchers used a new “technological eye” 

to observe and characterize habitats. Unobtrusive 

technologies let them see animals and behaviors 

never before witnessed by humans, revealing many

11

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

remarkable visions, such as a deep-sea

squid, fluorescent fish and animals, 

and flashing corals.

During the Estuary to the Abyss

expedition, scientists explored

along a virtual transect in

depths from 400 to 1000

meters, from the coast of

Georgia to the edge of the

continental shelf off South

Carolina. They examined changes

in faunas that occur with

increasing depth and distance

offshore to help understand the

influence of distance from land (and its

human inhabitants), bottom type, and overlying

water masses.

On the second leg of the Russian-American Long-term

Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA), scientists focused on

ecosystem-oriented exploration. The Arctic shows a

trend in reduction of ice cover in the Chukchi Sea study

region and scientists believe this area might be subject

to significant ecosystem change. The RUSALCA studies

will provide a foundation for detecting future changes.

Scientists examined fish distribution, other watercolumn and benthic (sea-bottom) biological exploration, nutrient and current fluxes, methane distribution

and sea-floor processes.

The Gulf of Mexico Shipwreck Survey Expedition with

MMS had a significant biological component. Scientists

studied how man-made structures may function as

artificial reefs in deep water. Objectives were to characterize the biological effects, namely concretions and

biofouling communities on each wreck, and determine

the extent of physical and biological modification of

sediments through the activity of microbes near the

wrecks compared to distant areas. The study also

evaluated motile fish and invertebrate associations with

microbiologically induced concretions, hard pans, and

other growth forms. 

Habitat Characterization
More exploration and research has recently

begun to search, map, and study deep-sea

coral communities in a systematic way.

Deep-sea corals are fragile, long-lived, slow-growing,

and extremely susceptible to physical disturbance. It is

unknown if these species would be capable of repopulating a given area if they are destroyed. Little is known

about their distribution, population dynamics, ecology,

or how they function as habitat for other species. 

As human activities such as fisheries and oil and gas

exploration expand into deeper waters, the need for

deep-sea coral exploration and research grows more

critical.

Information from exploration has described the species

and community structure in a given area, the health of

the system and effects of human activities such 

as evidence of physical destruction from trawl gear.

This information is used to organize research and

monitoring, and to invoke management measures. For

example, the results of exploration activities have been

used very effectively to help establish the Oculina

Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) off the east

coast of Florida. 

In 2004, OE supported a number of missions to locate

and study deep-sea corals. On an expedition to the

Gulf of Alaska, three Principal Investigators researched

different aspects of deep-sea corals, and later, one of

those scientists led a “Deep-Sea Precious Corals”

expedition in Hawaiian waters. The study of deep-sea

corals and their associated communities was also a key

part of an expedition to New England Seamounts, and

was a focus in another expedition, “Life on the Edge.”

Additional expeditions included deep-sea corals in a

rich mix of research themes. For example, “Estuary to

the Abyss” collected dead corals to study their growth

rings as potential markers of regional weather and

climate patterns in past decades or centuries. This data

could be useful in predicting regional weather and

climate.

Working with states and academic institutions, NOAA

has taken a leading role in expanding exploration for

and research on deep-sea corals for the purposes of

effective management. Much work remains to be done

since so little is known about deep-sea coral habitats.

Exploration will continue to play a crucial role in

providing scientists, natural resource managers, and

educators with the first records and descriptions about

these systems. Ocean explorers will be called upon to

provide a framework and foundation of information that

will fill existing gaps in our knowledge, and to set 

the stage for refined research, management, and

monitoring. 

12

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

Deep-Sea Corals
New Ocean Resources is a theme found in

expeditions designed to locate, characterize,

and collect organic and inorganic materials,

and assess their potential as resources. Many of these

efforts focus on collecting unique deep-water

specimens of invertebrates and microbes and isolating

potentially bioactive compounds that could be

developed as pharmaceutical products or biomedical

research tools. 

The ocean is home to the greatest biological diversity on

the planet. While the most common use of marine

animals and plants is for food, they also produce a wide

variety of chemical compounds of increasing interest to

explorers and scientists as potential biomedical agents.

Marine plants and animals adapt natural biochemicals

in a variety of ways to produce any ecological edge 

they can find to survive in a highly challenging ocean

environment. 

The bounty from the sea includes chemicals and

biological materials isolated from marine organisms,

which are currently commercially available or in

development as pharmaceuticals, molecular probes,

medical devices, diagnostics, enzymes, nutritional

supplements, pigments and cosmetic additives.

The 2004 Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition

used the deep submergence vehicle (DSV)

Alvin to explore five large seamounts.

Giacomini, Pratt, Welker, Denson, and

Dickens seamounts stretch over a 400-

nautical-mile section of the northeast Pacific,

called the Kodiak-Bowie Seamount Chain.

Operating from a base aboard the R/V

Atlantis, scientists dove to depths of up to

3,500 meters to conduct biological and

geological investigations on those ancient

volcanoes. One focus was on bamboo corals,

and the lead scientist in that area is interested

in bamboo corals for many reasons, including

their application as bone replacements. Since

the architecture and chemistry of corals are

very close to human bone, some coral already

13

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

New Ocean Resources

has been used to replace bone grafts in helping human

bone to heal quickly and cleanly.

Scientists on a number of missions sponsored by

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) collect and

preserve specimens for later additional research,

including investigation of marine compounds as

biomedical agents. OE has begun a review of the

additional costs, equipment and procedures needed to

expand the collection of specimens on ocean

expeditions, store and protect them properly and

disseminate them to a wider audience of scientists

interested in researching marine animals for beneficial

medical or industrial use.

Another potential new ocean resource is methane

hydrates, solid ice-like structures of water and natural

gas located beneath the ocean floor. Conservative

estimates of methane hydrates in U.S. waters indicate

volumes of natural gas sufficient to supply all the

nation’s energy needs for 2,000 years at current use

rates. On an OE-sponsored mission in the Gulf 

of Mexico, a scientist from the University of Florida,

unexpectedly discovered that methane hydrates are

brilliantly fluorescent. Knowledge they fluoresce could

lead to new detection techniques. 
14

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

The ocean, just like outer space,

demands advanced technology for

exploration and research. With technical excellence a core value at NOAA’s

Ocean Exploration (OE) program, OE works to

foster the development and deployment of

state-of-the-art ocean technologies.

The technology program is very much a

collaborative effort with engineers at leading

institutions and industries across the nation.

Strong ties to technology development labs

keep OE’s technology program at the cutting

edge of ocean engineering. 

Cooperation across government agencies,

industry and academia is designed to

maximize the impact of technology investment. OE

does not support technology development for its own

sake but is always driven by a defined need. This may

be a particular scientific question or an apparent 

technological need. 

As new tools are developed they should be made

available to all ocean explorers. But not all new 

technologies are field proven. OE’s limited budget

generally prohibits long-term investments in technology

development. Rather, OE aims to provide support for

highly leveraged projects and the first field tests of new

technologies. OE provides technical expertise and

leadership, thereby improving all aspects of NOAA’s

ocean research, management and exploration efforts.

The OE technology program works through a variety of

mechanisms. Joint programs with other Federal

agencies, direct grants to academic and industrial

research teams, and internal partnerships with other

NOAA programs allow for a diversity of technology

projects. During 2004 many exciting pilot programs,

demonstrations, and development efforts were

conducted in the OE technology program.

The program supported significant new technologies or

trials of new tools. Grant funding supported research

into new artificial intelligence for autonomous

underwater vehicles (AUVs). Grants also moved new

chemical and biological sensors from lab prototypes 

to field trials. Certification of AUV “gliders” for

deployment from research aircraft was another

extramural program, as was advanced research into

quantitative measurements of ocean features using

video cameras. 

Working with the U.S. Navy, OE demonstrated a new

imaging system on an AUV. A multi-agency team used

this vehicle and instrument to examine the wreck of the

Paul Palmer in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine

Sanctuary. Another joint project explored the

technology required to allow unmanned marine

vehicles to interact with conventional vessels. 

Within NOAA, OE continues to provide leadership and

technical expertise in the area of AUVs. During 2004,

NOAA took delivery of two AUVs and contracted for 

a third. OE was engaged in each of these projects,

directly supporting NOAA colleagues as they develop

and deploy these new tools. 

Ocean Exploration Technology –

New Sensors and Tools 
Anew NOAA ship will go boldly on a mission to

further explore the world’s oceans. A multidisciplinary group is on a fast track to plan and

develop specifications for a major conversion of the

former Navy ship USNS Capable. Following the award

of a conversion contract and an estimated 12 to 18

months in a shipyard, the ship will be unique to NOAA

and the federal fleet as the only U.S. government ship

dedicated to exploring Earth’s oceans.

“We want NOAA’s newly converted ship to become the

international symbol vessel for ocean exploration and

research,” said Stephen Hammond, acting director of

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration. “When it sails to

unknown areas of the ocean, chances are excellent that

multidisciplinary, international teams of scientistexplorers on board, and on shore at satellite-linked

Science Command Centers, will make very fundamental discoveries. If we plan well now, those scientists

will be equipped for success,” said Hammond. “It will

be a path finding ship for discovery, and for mapping a

route to ocean research.”

“We are excited about the possibilities this ship offers,”

said Rick Rosen, NOAA Assistant Administrator for

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “While research

largely involves the testing of hypotheses, scientists on

this ship will do that and more—they’ll be testing, but

also generating, hypotheses.” 

Key elements of converting the ship will be mounting a

multibeam mapping sonar on the bottom of the hull and

equipping the ship with a dynamic positioning system,

or DP, because it’s vitally important that the ship

15

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

maintains position while operating remotely operated

vehicles (ROVs). DP links ship instruments measuring

wind, speed and currents, with a Global Positioning

System reading from satellite. The system then automatically adjusts the ship’s main and thruster engines 

to keep the ship in a very tight circle, no more than 

10 meters off target.

After conversion, the 224-foot former Navy ship will be

NOAA’s only ship with a dedicated science-class deepocean robot. The ship will carry 10,000 meters of

umbilical cable, weighing more than 22,000 pounds.

Up to 6,000 meters will be used to lower a tow sled

close to the ocean floor. Another 30 meters of separate

cable will connect the tow sled with a mobile ROV

equipped with a robust sampling capability. The long

umbilical from the ship to tow sled will funnel

commands to and collect data and images from the

ROV. And, it will provide both the tow sled and ROV

with enough electrical power to operate bright lights,

high-definition video cameras and high-resolution still

cameras. 

Scientists who miss the ship need not stand on the pier

and watch opportunity sail away. They will be ashore at

special Science Command Centers, one of which will

be built at NOAA’s Silver Spring complex. Though far

from a rolling ship, those scientists will be members of

the science team—full participants in the ocean

expedition. Through high-speed Internet2 connections,

scientists will exchange data and see deep-ocean

images and specimens taken by ROVs at the same time

as their counterparts on the ship, or at other Science

Command Centers ashore. 

New Exploration Ship
With 10 percent of its overall

annual budget dedicated to

education and outreach, the

Ocean Exploration (OE) program strives to

engage the broadest possible audiences 

so as to raise America’s environmental

literacy. During 2003-2004, OE continued

to form collaborations among explorers 

and educators to develop educational

opportunities, materials, and resources that

brought entire classrooms “on board” for

exploration and discovery during NOAA’s

multidisciplinary voyages.

Eighteen lesson plans were produced for six

multidisciplinary voyages of discovery and

were posted under the Education Section of

the Ocean Explorer Web site oceanexplorer.noaa.gov. Lesson plans were correlated to the

National Science Education Standards and were

enhanced with daily logs from sea prepared by scientists

and educators. Images and video captured in the daily

logs also provided an invaluable opportunity for

teachers and students to glimpse new ocean findings,

often within 24 hours of their discovery. A total of 75

teachers; representing a minimum 2,250 students in SC,

GA, MS, and MA; participated in intensive professional

development in the use of the lessons. They brought

NOAA science and exploration into classrooms and

provided students with opportunities to look into the

lives and careers of premier ocean scientists/explorers

on expeditions from the western Atlantic and Gulf of

Mexico to the western and eastern Pacific Ocean. 

Collaborations with the NOAA National Ocean Service

(NOS) Special Projects staff led to OE Education

Alliances becoming an added feature on the Ocean

Explorer Web site at oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/

alliances/welcome.html. Professional development

offerings continued to be added at oceanexplorer

.noaa.gov/edu/development/development.html. Ocean

A.G.E Careers (Another Generation of Explorers) at

oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/welcome.html,

16

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

Education and Outreach

continued to develop with two new career profiles and

web chats added. There, students interact via live Web

chats with talented women and men who explore our

ocean planet. From submersible pilots to research

scientists, the site provides students with first-hand

knowledge of exciting ocean careers through live

interviews, video profiles, biographies, background

materials, and mission logs. An Ocean Explorer

Education Listserv was developed and currently has

more than 3,500 subscribers who are informed of

upcoming professional development and other

educational offerings, including NOAA Ocean

Exploration Expeditions.

The final phase of Learning Ocean Science through

Ocean Exploration was completed with printing of the

curriculum which serves as the cornerstone for nationallevel professional development in ocean science content

for teachers of Grades 6-12. OE Education Alliances

established with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research

Institute and Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in 2003

continued to offer professional development in the use 

of the curriculum, and three new Alliances were

established with the South Carolina Aquarium

(Charleston, SC), the New England Aquarium (Boston,

MA), and The Pier Aquarium (St. Petersburg, FL). 
In addition to these formal partnerships, professional

development in the use of the curriculum was offered at

the National Marine Sanctuaries Annual Workshop

(Honolulu, HI), Louisiana Science Teachers Association

Short Course (New Orleans, LA), Alaska SeaLife Center

(Seward, AK), Center for Ocean Science Education

Excellence – Southeast Summer Institute and Port Day

(Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC), and the National

Science Teachers Association Annual Conference Short

Course 2004 (Atlanta, GA). In all, 301 teachers were

reached, representing a minimum of 9,030 students.

In partnership with the National Marine Educators

Association (NMEA), OE coordinated development,

editing, and layout and design of two issues of Current:

The Journal of Marine Education: one focusing on

Aquarius and another on the Proceedings of the 2004

NMEA Annual Conference. Current is distributed to

more than 1,200 NMEA members throughout the

country. OE also developed an educational brochure,

entitled National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration Education

Program. More than 8,000 have been distributed at

professional conferences around the country.

17

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

OE, in partnership with the National Geographic Society

and the College of Exploration, hosted a 9-part virtual

teacher workshop series, entitled Classroom Exploration

of the Oceans 03: Ocean Exploration – H.M.S.

Challenger and Beyond to identify how the excitement of

ocean exploration can enhance teaching and learning in

the classroom. Approximately 2,100 teaching professionals, representing 48 U.S. States and 50 different

countries, territories, or organizations, including the

Department of Defense Schools, Puerto Rico, Guam,

American Samoa, Northern Marina Island, and the U.S.

Virgin Islands; participated in the workshop.

NOAA OE continued to foster numerous national and

regional partnerships with scientific and educational

organizations to enhance ocean literacy. These include,

but are not limited to, the Marine Advanced Technology

Education national ROV student competition, the

National Centers for Ocean Science Education

Excellence (COSEE) Council, the Southeastern COSEE,

the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A, and the Smithsonian

Institution’s National Museum of Natural History

(NMNH) Ocean Hall, a premiere exhibit on the global

ocean to open in 2008. Additionally, OE worked closely

with the Marine Technology Society. The OE Education

Director worked closely with the NOAA Center of

Excellence in Oceans and Human Health at the

Hollings Marine Laboratory, served as a member of the

NOAA Education Council, and worked closely with 

the NOAA Office of Education and Sustainable

Development.

When NOAA’s new ship for ocean exploration becomes

operational as expected in 2007, it will be a platform

not only for ocean exploration and science, but also for

education. An exciting aspect of the ship will be its

ability to send live audio and video images from

scientists at sea, and images from robotics on the ocean

floor to classrooms, making teachers and students

virtual members of each team of scientist-explorers. 

The satellite-Internet pathway into classrooms will be

complimented in many cases by daily logs filed by

scientists from sea, and opportunities for students to ask

questions of scientists via email. Additionally, as the

ship is designed for its conversion, an important consideration is how the vessel can best be equipped to host

teacher professional development.
18

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

THEMES

Return to Titanic saw extraordinary coverage including

a National Geographic television special with Dr. Robert

Ballard who discovered the wreck in 1985. News

releases about NOAA’s participation in identifying

Kad’yak, the oldest shipwreck yet discovered in Alaska,

started with coverage in the New York Times and

quickly became an international wire story, and the

discovery of the wreck of a large Navy seaplane that

sank off Hawaii, was covered nationally.

Eleven media events were conducted in association

with 2004 ocean expeditions. These events and other

created media opportunities focused on advancing

ocean literacy, interesting young people in the joy of

discovery and the possibility of marine science careers,

and importantly, encouraging all audiences to obtain

more information by visiting our primary outreach

resource, oceanexplorer.noaa.gov.

Outreach efforts went beyond traditional media to

include developing with our Web team an Ocean

Challenge Puzzle, and coordinating an ocean

exploration story in Mark Trail, the comic-strip star who

has been teaching people to preserve our natural

resources for future generations. Mark Trail appears in

175 newspapers, reaching nearly 23 million readers

worldwide. 

Ocean exploration education and outreach will extend

its reach enormously with new Science Centers under

construction ashore that link by Internet2 and satellites

to our ships exploring at sea, and with exploration ships

showing images from the seafloor in real time over

basic Internet, to reporters, teachers, students and

armchair explorers ashore. 

The outreach component of Education and Outreach 

is communicating to a variety of audiences, some 

large and some narrowly defined and targeted, the

importance of, and the need to explore, Earth’s ocean.

One outreach goal in 2004 was to interest reporters at

major media organizations to cover our ocean

expeditions, by offering and explaining news coverage

opportunities that connect directly with their audiences.

This begins with the fact all life depends on the ocean. 

Reporters from national and international media organizations covered many key ocean expeditions

sponsored by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration

during the 2004 field season. A media event at the

National Press Club was arranged for scientists 

to explain their extraordinary discoveries on the

Submarine Ring of Fire. Associated Press wire service,

Associate Press television, Voice of America, EOS

Newspaper, and others covered the event directly and

carried a story picked up by Fox television, ABC’s

“Good Morning America” and many other outlets.

A live satellite media availability was held for reporters

ashore to interview scientists at sea during the 2004

Mountains in the Sea mission, and Associated Press and

other media extensively covered expeditions such as

Life on the Edge, Windows to the Deep, Investigating

the Charleston Bump, Operation Deep Scope, Gulf of

Alaska and others. A Reuters reporter sailed with the

U.S.-Russian expedition to the Arctic, and filed three

lengthy stories.
19

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

THEMES

Vast, diverse, deep, dark, powerful, mysterious....magical!. That’s what you get when you ask scientists,

researchers, educators, and designers from schools, government agencies, museums and aquaria to describe the

ocean in a single word. The one-word descriptions

launched plans for Ocean Hall, a partnership

between NOAA and Smithsonian to create a major

exhibit to open in 2008 in The Smithsonian

Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Those first words expanded into themes for

educating and inspiring the public—ocean

stewardship, an awareness of our human

connection to the oceans, the global ocean,

ecosystems, and for nurturing the next generation of

ocean scientists and policymakers. 

“I grew up in this area. I remember Smithsonian’s

old Marine Hall with a model of a huge blue whale

hanging from the ceiling. I was always so excited to go there,” said Joanne Flanders, NOAA’s Ocean Hall project

manager. “It’s a real opportunity to plan for an ocean exhibit that’s much larger and scheduled to last 30 years,

because I want children who will visit, and their children, to have that same magical experience I had.” 

In Ocean Hall, a large icon exhibit will be a model of an endangered North Atlantic right whale. Visitors will get

a plankton’s eye view of the feeding giant whale whose head will be coming down quite low into the Hall. 

The Hall will also likely include NOAA’s “Science on a Sphere” with eight cameras and high-intensity lights

projecting on a six foot sphere, simulating a view from 22,000 miles above the Earth. Projections will tell stories

of a global and interconnected ocean interacting with the atmosphere, changing with plate tectonics, and

producing oxygen, food and medicine. “The sphere

will be engaging—a real eye-catcher,” Flanders said.

“With the effect of ocean currents, storms and other

dynamics moving across a spinning globe, people

will understand almost immediately that our ocean is

a dynamic, global system.” 

Plans include an Ocean Exploration Theater where

visitors will take a simulated deep-ocean dive. Other

exhibits will show interactions of the ocean’s biology,

chemistry and geology and will demonstrate the

ocean’s connections to life on all parts of the planet.

“Plans include an ‘Ocean in the News’ exhibit with

video news updates by NOAA or Smithsonian

scientists,” Flanders said. Shores to shallows, bioluminescence, a vertical water column showing diversity, and a coral reef tank are also planned. “When we first

began,” said Flanders, “a number of us said we wanted Ocean Hall visitors to get the ‘feeling’ of the ocean. 

If visitors come away more educated and excited about the ocean, and just a bit in awe of an ocean on which

life—including their life—ultimately depends, Ocean Hall will put up the ‘success’ sign,“ she said. “And it will be

the ocean itself that will benefit.

OCEAN HALL
Life on the Edge

Return to Titanic

2004 Mountains in the Sea

WW II Shipwreck Survey

2004 Gulf of Alaska

Operation Deep Scope

Estuary to the Abyss

Deep Sea Precious Corals

20 2

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

2004 Ocean Expeditions
2004 Submarine

Ring of Fire

Russian-U.S. Arctic

Census of Marine Life

21

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT
22

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Submarine Ring of Fire

S

ubmarine Ring of Fire–2004, a 21-day

voyage of discovery was sponsored

by the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration and by the

Natural Sciences and Engineering

Research Council of Canada. The mission

joined 34 top scientists from the U.S.,

Canada, Japan and New Zealand to explore

submerged volcanoes of the Mariana arc, an area

extending northward from Guam for nearly 760 miles.

The science team initially mapped the area in 2003

when they surveyed more than 50 submarine volcanoes

and discovered that 10 of them had active hydrothermal

systems.

“Our primary interest in studying these volcanoes is

their relatively shallow depth,” said Bob Embley, the

mission’s chief scientist and an oceanographer with

NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. “In

contrast to the great depths of most of the mid-ocean

ridge volcanoes, these volcanoes commonly rise into

the upper reaches of the oceans where most marine life

is concentrated and where exchanges in gases take

place with the atmosphere.”

A key objective was to characterize the biology and

chemistry of the hydrothermal systems at Mariana Arc

volcanoes. Sea-floor hot springs are well known along

the mid-ocean ridge system, because they were first

discovered more than 25 years ago. In comparison, the

hydrothermal systems of submarine volcanoes along

island arcs are relatively unexplored, especially in terms

of modern exploration tools.

The mission relied heavily on the unmanned

submersible Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean

Science (ROPOS) to probe the depths down to more

than a mile where human exploration is limited.

ROPOS was launched and guided from the University

of Washington Research Vessel (R/V) Thomas G.

Thompson. Scientists made 14 dives with

the submersible on seven volcanoes

and collected hundreds of samples for

geological, biological and chemical

studies.

“We were just going from one incredible

event to the next, seeing things we had

never witnessed before,” said Bill Chadwick, a

volcanologist with the Cooperative Institute for

Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University. 

“It was exciting and quite remarkable in that every

volcano we visited was unique.”

A dramatic discovery was made at the first site visited.

The unmanned submersible ROPOS and its cameras

were 1,800 feet deep on the rim of a crater near the top

of a volcano when huge yellow clouds of sulfur-rich

effluent enveloped the submersible. 

“We aptly named this site ‘Brimstone Pit,’ and when

rocks emerged from the cloud hitting the ROPOS, we

realized we were the first to witness a deep-sea volcano

during an eruptive episode,” Embley said. “It was

fortunate we were there to observe and sample it, but it

was difficult to take samples in the volcanic crater

because of the danger to the ROPOS.”
NOAA scientist Dave Butterfield,

chemist in charge of water

sampling, determined that the

fluid was very corrosive, with a

high concentration of sulfuric

acid. The ROPOS operator on the

research vessel sent a signal

down the long tether line,

commanding ROPOS to reverse

engines.

At another site, a spectacular,

highly concentrated flow of

carbon dioxide-rich fluid was

discovered. The science team

was astonished to see large

bubbles floating up from the

seafloor around this site when it

was disturbed. After discussion, the consensus opinion

was that the bubbles were predominantly liquid carbon

dioxide. This is a key discovery not simply for the

novelty of the phenomenon.

“We found a natural laboratory where the effects of

carbon dioxide on marine organisms can be studied,”

said Steve Hammond, acting director of NOAA’s Office

of Ocean Exploration. The liquid form of carbon dioxide

is present due to the great depth, and resulting pressure

at the site. At 5,263 feet (approximately one mile), 

the pressure from the water column is equal to 

160 atmospheres.

NOAA scientist John Lupton, the principle investigator

studying the gases, teamed with others to collect the

bubbles in an inverted plastic tube normally used for

taking sediment samples. Some bubbles were

then drawn into a special gas-tight

titanium bottle.

Hydrothermal activity on

submarine volcanoes also

fed large populations 

of microbes specially

adapted to use iron,

hydrogen sulfide and

other chemicals for

their energy source. 

23

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

In some areas, the seafloor was

covered with a thick reddishorange microbial “mat” produced

by such microbes. Since iron is a

limiting element in the surface

productivity of the ocean, the

hydrothermal output of iron 

out of such shallow submarine

volcanoes is of particular interest.

Biologists found a wealth of new

discoveries at the East Diamante

volcano in the Mariana Arc.

Although it is thought this volcano has not erupted for many

hundreds of years, there was

extensive hydrothermal activity

on the youngest volcanic cones in

the center of a six-mile caldera. Scientists observed the

rare convergence of the photosynthetic zone, where all

life depends on sunlight, and the chemosynthetic zone,

where energy is mostly derived from chemicals such as

hydrogen sulfide released from reactions between hot

seawater and volcanic rocks.

ROPOS climbed a slope covered with a fine white

microbial mat feeding off gases from the hydrothermal

activity. At 650 feet below the surface, the first photosynthetic green and red algae appeared beneath the

white bacterial growth. At 550 feet, ROPOS reached the

top of the cone where photosynthetic life dominated.

Coral and large basket stars abounded, and schools of

multi-hued tropical fish swarmed around the peak. 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Submarine Ring of Fire–2004

Submerged Volcanoes of the Mariana Arc

March 27 – April 18, 2004

ROV ROPOS and R/V Thomas G. 

Thompson

34 top scientists from four nations

Made path-finding discoveries

Obtained first video of an underwater 

eruption

Observed liquid CO2 bubbles rising 

from seafloor 

Found rare convergence of photosynthetic and chemosynthetic life
F

ive seamounts in the northern New England

Seamount chain were explored during this

expedition. Three seamounts that had been

explored during the 2003 cruise (Bear, Manning, and

Kelvin) were revisited, and Retriever Seamount was

explored for the first time. A last-minute, opportunistic

decision to dive on Balanus Seamount (which had not

been visited in more than 30 years) led to some

unexpected discoveries. 

The diverse collaborative group on this 17-day cruise on

NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown included fish biologists,

geneticists, a benthic ecologist, a museum specialist

from NOAA, biological oceanographers, educators,

graduate students, and a specialized team to manage,

maintain, and operate the ROV’s, satellite dish, and

other highly advanced technology. 

The expedition was the first collaboration between OE

and the Sea Research Foundation’s Institute for

Exploration (IFE), to use IFE vehicles and personnel to

meet objectives not directly associated with IFE. It was

also the first time science participants had nearly

unlimited real-time access to the high definition images

obtained by the IFE dual ROV system of Hercules and

Argus. The satellite technology on board, and the IFE

“Inner Space” technology on shore at the University of

Rhode Island, provided opportunities for public viewing

of the ROV work on the seamounts, and for live

educational broadcasts.

Key objectives included documenting occurrences of

corals and current flow around the seamounts,

conducting in-situ observations, and collecting

specimens of corals and their commensals.

Relationships of benthic fishes to coral distributions and

other aspects of the seamount landscapes were also

documented. Coral specimens were collected and

preserved for later genetic and reproductive analyses

and positive identification. Larval settlement blocks

deployed during a 2003 cruise were retrieved and

preserved for later examination for the presence of

newly settled coral larvae. This information will help

determine how deep-sea coral colonies form and persist

on seamounts.

Multibeam data was acquired at each seamount and

during transits between dive sites. This was used with

data acquired during a 2003 cruise, and data shared by

a collaborator who visited the region in 2003, to

develop a reasonably comprehensive multibeam data

set of the northern New England Seamount chain.

High-resolution topographic maps were developed

from these combined data sets and were used to identify

the primary target locations for ROV dives.

The expedition discovered 10 new octocoral species

and collected 27 octocoral species to examine for

associated invertebrates. An interesting organism found

living on corals was a colorful deep-sea version of a

snapping shrimp. The tiny females were found bearing

eggs, living amongst branches of various elegant

chrysogorgiid corals. “It was amazing to witness

the organisms associated with the corals, as

most scientists never have this opportunity,”

said Les Watling, chief scientist and benthic

24

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Mountains in the Sea
ecologist from the University of

Maine. “You can’t possibly

determine which organisms are

associated with specific coral

species by dragging a net over the

bottom. You really need to

observe the corals prior to

collecting them.”

Live corals were examined for

preliminary classification, polyp

morphology, polyp behavior, and

reproductive state. Coral tissues

were preserved for further reproductive and genetic analyses, and

positive identification. Preliminary examination of coral polyps at sea showed nearly

half the colonies contained eggs in various stages of

development, and live sperm and developing embryos

were found in several colonies. The presence of

embryos in coral tissue suggests that some deep water

corals may brood their young. As very little is known

about reproduction in deep-water corals, a finding such

as this is considered significant.

Video transect surveys obtained information on habitat

features and associated organisms within seamount

landscapes. Fisheries scientists on board used this data

to develop a landscape classification scheme for deep

sea fishes on the seamounts, to classify patterns of

habitat use. ROV’s spent about 157 hours on the bottom

photo-documenting seamount habitats and collecting

specimens. More than 470 specimens were collected,

including corals, sponges, and invertebrates, and most

will be deposited in the Smithsonian’s National

Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum

of Natural History at Yale University. 

25

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

Three lesson plans tied to the

mission were developed for

Grades 5-12, and teachers from

throughout Alaska participated in

a professional development

offering. Outreach calls were

made from the ship and from

DSV Alvin on the seafloor, to

teachers and students at UCAP, a

school in Providence, RI for atrisk students; to teachers gathered

at the Alaska SeaLife Center; to

scientists at the Institute of

Genomic Research in Rockville,

Md.; and to a class of at-risk

students in Indianapolis. AP and

the Providence newspaper covered the call to UCAP, a

newspaper reported on the Indianapolis call, and at the

end of the cruise, a media availability with scientists 

in Astoria, Ore. resulted in extensive media coverage. 

"I hope the kids will see how fascinating the world 

is and what they can do when they are educated. 

The more they see beyond the boundaries of their

neighborhoods, the farther they can go and they'll see

possibilities instead of limitations," said Rob DeBlois,

director of UCAP School.

Multibeam data showed that the Balanus site had three

peaks and a dive at the base of one of the steeper peaks

resulted in some of the more beautiful images of corals

and sponges acquired. During the final science meeting

on board to wrap-up the cruise, Watling, said, “We

exceeded all our expectations. I admit I was skeptical of

what the ROV’s could really do, but they were just

fantastic. The IFE crew was so responsive and ready to

solve every problem. We’ve seen what’s possible with

this technology now, and it’s very impressive.” 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Five New England Seamounts studied

May 8-24, 2004

NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown

IFE’s ROVs Argus and Hercules on 

seafloor 157 hours

420 specimens obtained

More than 10 new species of 

octocorals found

Extensive acquisition of 

multibeam data

Extensive education and outreach
Nearly 20 years after first finding

the sunken remains of RMS

Titanic, marine explorer 

Dr. Robert Ballard returned in June

2004 to help the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

study the ship’s rapid deterioration.

A professor of oceanography at the University

of Rhode Island (URI) and director of its Institute for

Archaeological Oceanography, Ballard and his team

of scientists from NOAA and other institutions spent

11 days at the site, mapping the ship and conducting

scientific analyses of its deterioration. The mission was

conducted from May 30 through June 9, from NOAA

ship Ronald H. Brown, using the Institute for

Exploration’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs)

Hercules and Argus. The “look-don’t-touch” mission

used high-definition video and stereoscopic still

images to provide an updated assessment of the 

wreck site.

As the nation’s ocean agency, NOAA has a vested

interest in the scientific and cultural aspects of the

Titanic, and in its appropriate treatment

and preservation. A focus is to build a

baseline of scientific information from

which to measure the shipwreck’s

processes and deterioration, and apply

that to other deep-water shipwrecks

and submerged cultural resources.

The science team included URI’s Dwight

Coleman, the expedition’s research chief. As the

marine archaeologist with NOAA’s Office of Ocean

Exploration, LT. Jeremy Weirich oversaw the marine

archaeology component. Expedition goals included

the microbial research of Droycon Bioconcepts’

scientist Roy Cullimore, who studied natural deterioration of the ship’s hull. Tiny microbes that feed on

iron and create icicle-shaped formations called

rusticles are responsible for this deterioration. While

rusticles have been observed for many years, little is

known about them. 

The return trip to Titanic was not an easy one. 

The explorers and the crew battled weather so difficult

it sometimes kept the ROVs lashed to the deck of the

tossing ship. Technicians from Ballard’s Institute for

Exploration soon had the ROVs ready for deployment,

and when “windows” of good weather appeared, the

underwater robots began their four-hour dive to the

remains of the great ship.

In addition to state of-the-art cameras, ROV Hercules

was equipped with a suite of oceanographic sensors

and mapping technology to document the site

accurately.

“High definition still and video cameras on the

underwater robots mapped the separated bow and

stern sections of the ship,” said Weirich. “Additional

research was conducted on rusticles that hang from

26

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Return to Titanic
the ship giving the appearance

of a ship that is melting,” he

said. Scientists also recovered

and replaced two platforms

containing a variety of metal test

strips that were set in the vicinity

of Titanic in 1998. “It was

important to go back to Titanic,”

said Capt. Craig Mclean, then

director of NOAA’s Office of

Ocean Exploration. “It’s a

cultural icon and a maritime

gravesite deserving of our

respect. But it’s also a deep-sea

laboratory where we can study

the chemical, biological and

human effects on the ship’s rate

of deterioration and apply that knowledge to many

other deepwater shipwrecks and submerged cultural

resources around the world.” 

One objective was to create a photo-mosaic of the

ship, to compare it with photographs Ballard took of

the bow section nearly 20 years earlier. “We’re finding

very little has happened from natural causes,” said

Ballard. “The ship is similar to the ship we investigated

18 years ago, except where submarines have been

landing. Over the last several years,” he said,

“submarines came for salvage, filming and tourism,

and they have been landing on the deck of the Titanic,

doing damage.”

The team planned for communications technology to

play a large role in the mission. With live satellite

transmissions and high-capacity Internet, mission

27

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

events were beamed to scientists

ashore, making them virtual

members of the scientific team.

In partnership with the Jason

Foundation for Education and

the Mystic Aquarium and

Institute of Exploration’s Immersion Project, thousands of

students also participated. Live

views of Titanic were part of a

National Geographic Channel’s

“Return to Titanic” television

program on June 7, and on

World Ocean Day, June 8,

Ballard and McLean participated

live via satellite at the G8

Summit in Savannah. 

In April 2001, in accordance with the Titanic Maritime

Memorial Act of 1986, NOAA published “Guidelines

for Research, Exploration and Salvage of RMS Titanic.”

Ballard and the science team learned during the

mission that the protection of Titanic would take a

major step forward when it was announced the U.S.

ambassador in London would sign an international

treaty leading to enforcement authority and increased

protection of the wreck site. When Congress passes

enabling legislation, the agreement will enhance

protection of the Titanic wreck site, and provide for

the U.S., an extension of NOAA’s 2001 guidelines.

“This agreement has potential as a model for

protection of other shipwrecks and submerged marine

resources well beyond the territorial jurisdiction of

nations,” said NOAA General Counsel Jim Walpole.

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Return to Titanic

Team led by Dr. Ballard who 

discovered Titanic

May 30 – June 9, 2004

NOAA ship Ronald H, Brown

ROVs Argus and Hercules

Titanic wreck systematically mapped

Research on microbibial ”rusticles,” 

and other natural and manmade 

impacts on Titanic’s deterioration

Extensive outreach including a 

National Geographic Television special
The Arctic Ocean is largely

unexplored. Some data collected

for national defense are now

available and are providing a better

picture of Arctic Ocean bathymetry and

circulation. The International Arctic

Buoy Program provides data on ice drift

trajectories and surface meteorology and

there have been intensive research

campaigns, such as the year-long Surface Heat

Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA). Yet, there are no

accurate maps of the seafloor and little understanding

of currents and life in deeper portions of 

the Arctic Ocean, or in areas far from land-based

facilities. 

To explore these areas, NOAA’s Arctic Research Office

and Office of Ocean Exploration planned a long term

program with scientists from the Russian Academy of

Sciences, called RUSALCA (Russian-American Long

Term Census of the Arctic). A workshop in Moscow

outlined biological, geological, chemical and physical

oceanographic sampling strategies in the Bering Sea,

Strait and the Chukchi Sea. Primary study areas were

the Piips Volcano in the Russian waters of the Aleutian

Arc, and from Wrangel Island to Point

Barrow north toward the Chukchi

Plateau along the Herald “Canyon.” 

In July of 2004, the Russian research

ship Professor Khromov sailed from

Vladivostok with U.S and Russian

funded scientists for 45-days of

exploration and research. It was the first

RUSALCA activity under a 2003 Memorandum

of Understanding between NOAA and the Russian

Academy of Sciences, for World Ocean and Polar

Regions Studies. 

The cruise went to Arctic regions shared by both

countries: the Bering and Chukchi seas. These seas,

and the life within, are thought to be particularly

sensitive to global climate change because they are

areas where steep ocean thermohaline and nutrient

gradients coincide with steep thermal gradients in the

atmosphere. 

The Bering Strait is the only Pacific gateway into and

out of the Arctic Ocean and is critical to the flux of

heat between the Arctic and the rest of the world.

Before establishing a climate-monitoring network in

this region, scientists wanted to monitor the flux of

fresh and salt water and establish benchmark

information about the distribution and migration

patterns of sea life. Cruise objectives also supported

the U.S. interagency Study of Environmental Arctic

Change (SEARCH) Program.

Waters exchanged between the Bering Sea

and Pacific Ocean transit through the Aleutian

Volcanic Arc where they are likely chemically

and dynamically modified by hydrothermal activity

of the mid-water volcanoes. Quantifying the flux from

this relatively shallow volcanic arc, as well as its

influence on the waters and atmosphere above, is

important considering the relationship between Earth

28

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Russian-U.S. Arctic

Census of Marine Life
processes—specifically, ocean

and greenhouse gas exchanges.

This cruise, marked the first time

Russian and U.S. scientists

worked in the area, mapping

volcanic features and searching

for fluxes of methane and other

hydrothermal fluids and gases.

On the mission’s first leg,

scientists studied the Piips

Volcano hydrothermal field,

discovered by Russian marine

geologists in 1987 at a depth of

less than 500 meters. Researchers measured temperatures up to 130o C and discovered hydrothermal

deposits of sulfates, carbonates, and amorphous silica.

They detected large fields of bacterial mats and

numerous hydrothermal fauna. A Russian side-looking

sonar was lowered above the volcano to map the

extent of thydrothermal fields below. Scientists from

the Pacific Oceanological Institute in Vladivostok used

hull-mounted acoustic sensors to track the rise 

of volcanic gas plumes. Evidence suggested the

plumes vent to the atmosphere, spewing gases 

and even mercury into the air-sea interface.

(www.arctic.noaa.gov) 

The expedition’s second leg focused on ecosystemoriented exploration. The Arctic shows a trend in the

reduction of ice cover and in the Chukchi Sea study

region, there is the possibility of permanent loss of the

seasonal ice cover, making the area subject to

significant ecosystem change and RUSALCA studies

will provide a foundation for measuring change. Nine

scientific programs examined fish distribution, other

water-column and benthic (sea-bottom) biological

exploration, nutrient and current fluxes, methane

distribution, and sea-floor processes. 

The science team used conductivity-temperaturedensity (CTD) stations to examine the role, rates, and

rhythms of Pacific water transport through the Herald

Canyon and dispersion into the greater Arctic beyond.

Until recently, transport pathways of water in and out

of this region have been poorly mapped. The degree

these waters mix with newly invasive Atlantic waters

29

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

over the Chukchi plateau and the

Mendeleev and Canada basins,

is not well known. 

Mission data is being coordinated with National Oceanographic Data Center, National

Climate Data Center, National

Geological Data Center and

National Snow and Ice Data

Center and with universities and

other appropriate organizations.

Mission Coordinators were 

Kathy Crane from NOAA and 

M. Zhdanov from Group “Alliance” in Moscow. Other

scientists and coordinators included Chief U.S.

Scientist Terry Whitledge from the University of Alaska

at Fairbanks, Vladimir Smolin, Ministry of Defense of

the Russian Federation and Russian chief of

expedition, and many Russian specialists. The science

team also included Russ Hopcroft and Brenda

Holladay from the University of Alaska, Gillian Potter

from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History,

Catherine W. Mecklenburg from the University of

California at Santa Barbara, Arianne Balsom from the

University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Mark Dennett

and Carin Ashjian from Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institution and Morgan Busby from NOAA’s Alaska

Fisheries Science Center. 

In addition to media stories about the R/V

Professor Khromov diverting to rescue two

boaters who failed their attempt to row across

the Bering Strait, media covered the

scientific and cooperative international

aspects of the expedition. A Reuters

reporter sailed with the expedition team

and filed several in-depth stories and at

mission’s end, scientists met with

reporters in Nome, Alaska. 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Collaborative U.S.-Russian Federation 

mission

First mission following NOAA/Russian 

Academy of Sciences MOU

Long-term Census of the Arctic

July 23 – August 24, 2004

Russian R/V Professor Khromov

Set U.S. and Russian long-term 

moorings in the Bering Strait
Humans have been fascinated by the sea. In earliest

times, we wondered:

what creatures inhabit these deep,

dark waters and what has become

of the many ships that met their end

at sea and now lie beneath the

waves?

Today, we want to know the specifics, such as the longterm effect of manmade structures on the deep sea, and,

conversely, the effect of the environment on those

structures. To investigate those questions, a team of

leading scientists sailed on an 18-day research mission

to survey WWII Gulf of Mexico shipwrecks. NOAA’s

Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) supported the multiagency mission by providing scientists and funding the

ship time, a deep-submergence remotely operated

vehicle (ROV), and personnel for both, all provided by

Sonsub, Inc. of Houston.

The multidisciplinary group, overseen by the Interior

Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS),

sailed on the NOAA-contracted research and

exploration vessel HOS Dominator. OE partnered 

with MMS and both operated under the interagency

program called NOPP—National Oceanographic

Partnership Program. A contract to conduct the research

was awarded to C & C Technologies, Inc., of Lafayette,

LA, which provided ship and ROV survey positioning

control. 

The PAST Foundation—Partnering Archaeology with

Science and Technology—oversaw the study’s outreach

and education component. A full curriculum, based on

each mission component, will be made available to

educational institutions in an easy-to-download format

via the PAST Foundation Web site.

C & C Technologies, a leader in the

field of marine geophysical surveys,

had discovered many of the wrecks

included in this study. C & C was

joined by a team of top scientists in

the fields of microbiology, marine

invertebrate and vertebrate zoology.

They included Roy Cullimore of

Droycon Bioconcepts, Inc. of

Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; William Schroeder,

senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab

and University of Alabama professor; Tom Shirley,

professor of invertebrate biology at the University of

Alaska, Fairbanks; and William Patterson, assistant

professor of marine vertebrate zoology at the University

of West Florida.

The study had both an archaeological/historical

objective and a biological objective. The archaeological

aim was to document the wreck sites being investigated

as historic properties with significance to American

history. The biological component asked the question,

“Do manmade structures, such as shipwrecks, function

as artificial reefs in deep water?”

In the Gulf of Mexico, it is accepted that habitats are

provided when decommissioned offshore oil and gas

structures are converted to artificial reefs on the

continental shelf. More information was needed to

know if there was promise for deep-sea artificial reefs.

“The Gulf was the ideal laboratory for this study,

because of the high number of steel-hulled ships that

were casualties of World War II,” explained Rob

Church, C & C Technologies’ project manager for the

study. The Gulf has one of the greatest concentrations of

Allied vessels lost to German U-boats, with 56 ships

sunk in 1942 and early 1943. 

30

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Gulf of Mexico

Shipwreck Survey
MMS marine archaeologist

Jack Irion, said “Seven of

these vessels, located during

oil and gas surveys required

by MMS, were selected for

this study because they

represent a range of depths

[from 280 ft to 6,800 ft] and

carried a variety of cargoes.

The depth range represents

different ecological niches

and most were sunk within a

few months of one another,”

he said. 

Biologists studied the environment at each site to determine the effect each

shipwreck had on the sea-floor biology, including how

microbes modified sediments near and far from wreck

sites, how tiny microbes cause the slow disintegration of

steel structures at great depths, how the ships’ cargoes

might affect the rate of disintegration, and how

biological communities might change as the ships

deteriorate. Scientists also visited a cold seep and

collected biological samples.

Team members also studied the historic merits of vessels

for potential nomination to the National Register of

Historic Places. “One of the most unexpected things

found archaeologically was a large debris field 1,200

feet north of the wreck of Alcoa Puritan and a 105mm

shell casing a couple of hundred feet south the main

wreckage,” said Church. These discoveries helped

retrace the final moments of the attack as U-507 slowly

overtook the Alcoa Puritan, crippling it with its 105mm

deck gun and finishing off the freighter with a torpedo

on the starboard side. 

As the ROV approached the sunken tanker Gulfpenn,

large white silhouettes appeared. Pilot Phil Spearman

maneuvered the ROV closer and focused the video

camera on a spectacular colony of branching deepwater coral. A collective “wow” resonated through the

ROV control van. More large coral colonies were

sighted, evidence of deep-sea artificial reef effects.

31

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

The team studied the sunken

U-166 to assess its condition

and they examined microbiology test platforms deployed in October 2003.

Vertebrate (fish) and invertebrate (crabs, etc.) traps were

placed out from the wreck.

U-166 lies on the bottom

not far from its last victim,

the passenger freighter

Robert E. Lee.

Mike Overfield, the coordinator for Resources and

UnderSea Threats (RUST)

database of NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries

Resource Protection Team, added data to an inventory

of undersea threats and potential environmental

hazards within United States waters.

When Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley

came toward the end of the mission, they adjusted

operations out of the track of the storm and met every

objective but one—at a site directly in the path of

Bonnie.

For more information about the expedition, the

scientists and explorers involved and for stories of 

the sunken ships, visit www.pastfoundation.org/

DeepWrecks/. 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Gulf of Mexico Shipwreck Survey

July 29 – Aug 14, 2004

MMS and NOAA operating under NOPP auspices

HOS Dominator and SonSub’s Triton XL ROV

Government, Industry, University collaboration

Biological study of the affect of the ocean 

environment on shipwrecks, and of shipwrecks 

and their cargo on the environment

Learned that deep water shipwrecks can act 

as artificial reefs

Archaeological/historical study of shipwrecks
32

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Gulf of Alaska Seamounts

F

ive seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska

(GOA) were sampled and photodocumented on this mission,

adding to only six GOA seamounts

previously explored—five during the

OE expedition in 2002 and one earlier

in 2004 by two Principal Investigators

(PIs) from this expedition.

Isolated seamounts are known for high levels of

speciation. A large percentage of seamount fauna is

endemic, so potential to discover new life forms and

ecological relationships is high. GOA seamounts

explored so far have proven to have high biological

richness, and so the results of this expedition could

potentially aid in the wise stewardship of seamount

resources and fauna in the GOA. Other objectives

include gaining a better understanding of the geologic

history of the GOA, adding to knowledge of historic

climate and oceanic conditions in this dynamic region,

and helping determine the importance of seamounts as

essential habitats for unique and endemic species.

Good weather and a hard-working crew on the Woods

Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) research vessel

Atlantis allowed the science team to make 17 of 18

planned dives in the Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV)

Alvin. The five seamounts explored in the

Kodiak-Bowie Seamount Chain, were

Giacomini, Pratt, Welker, Denson, and

Dickens, stretching over 400-nautical-miles

of the northeast Pacific.

In Alvin, scientists dove more than 3,500

meters for biological and geological investigations of these ancient volcanoes. PIs and many

others on this cruise were on the GOA Expedition in

2002.

Objectives included geologic dating and characterization of seamounts; microbiological studies of rocks;

deep-sea coral distribution and genetics; community

ecology of deep-sea corals; and investigation of

microbial, invertebrate, and fish communities associated

with the corals. Also, sponge communities were

examined, and the genomics of bacteria associated with

corals and their inhabitants was investigated. Coral

specimens were preserved for taxonomic identification

by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural

History, and for genetic or reproductive studies.

A large number and diversity of coral, sponge, and invertebrate samples were collected, including some species

new to science. Rocks were collected to determine

geologic histories of the seamounts and full-coverage

bathymetric maps were made of seamounts, including

one documented previously only with satellite data.

During investigation of seamounts and transits, multibeam data was acquired for an area of 23081 km2

.

For genomic studies of bacterial communities, scientists

collected 62 coral specimens, 13 sponge specimens, 

and 36 water samples. In addition, 300 invertebrate

specimens, 140 coral specimens, and 34 sponge

specimens were collected. Rock samples were collected

for geologic studies and for microbial studies.

Using (DSV) Alvin, scientists collected samples and

conducted video transects to develop a photographic
inventory of fauna including

the coral, Siphonogorgia sp.,

from the family Nidaliidae.

Amy Baco-Taylor, a co-PI from

WHOI, said there were

multiple individuals of this

species in a small area of Pratt

seamount, but this was the only

species documentation during

the mission. This sighting might

represent range extension and

may be a new species. 

Bioluminescent properties were

found in a coral species previously unknown to phosphoresce and a previously undescribed Galatheid crab was collected. A snail fish,

family Liparidae, was collected with DSV Alvin’s suction

gun. Shortspine thornyhead and grenadier fish were

common. Both feed on small crustaceans such as shrimp

living on sponges 2,000 ft deep. One community of

shrimp seemed to be fighting for position around a small

rock that somehow landed on a glass sponge—one of 

a half-dozen species of glass sponge NOAA scientist 

G. P. Schmahl documented. 

“Deep-sea corals are often considered the ‘condominiums of the deep,’ because they provide habitat for a

large variety of organisms,” stated Tom Shirley, chief

scientist and University of Alaska scientist during the

cruise. 

Scientists discovered a significant northern range

extension for mesopelagic Scyphomedusa commonly

called “big red” or the “gumdrop jelly.” This new species

33

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

was originally described in

2003 and during this mission

the enormous and beautiful

gumdrop jelly was observed on

three of the five seamounts

explored. Shirley has a manuscript in progress related to this

discovery. 

Co-PI and Assistant Professor at

Oregon State, Randy Keller

researched volcanic rock

formations, including those with

a round, blobby appearance

somewhat like “pillows.” “This

only occurs underwater,” he

said. Naomi Ward from TIGR

collected bacteria from deep-sea corals for DNA

sequencing. “There is more microbial mass on Earth than

the biomass of all other life forms put together,” she said. 

Education and outreach were extensive, and brought the

excitement of discovery to several groups of students and

teachers through satellite phone calls patched down to

the Alvin sub at depth. Background information and

cruise activities were shared with the public through

NOAA’s Ocean Explorer Web site, and near-daily logs

included still and video images from the Alvin dives. 

An educator from an alternative school in Providence, RI,

a MATE Intern, and a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow were part

of the at-sea team. Teachers ashore accessed missionspecific lesson plans and a Professional Development

Institute was held at the Alaska SeaLife Center. Media

and educators toured the ship and spoke with scientists

and crew when the cruise ended in Astoria, OR on

August 24. 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Gulf of Alaska Seamounts

WHOI R/V Atlantis and DSV Alvin

July 30 – August 24, 2004

Four funded PI’s and one invited industry

group (TIGR)

17 Alvin dives, with 76 hours bottom time

Multibeam data acquired for an area of

23081 km2

At least 4 new coral species and 2 new

sponge species discovered

Northern range extension for one coral

species and “gumdrop jelly”
The deep sea is a dark frontier.

Attempts to shed light on

mysteries at the ocean’s depths

have been clouded at best. How many

marine animals have swum out of our

nets, evaded our bright and noisy

submersibles or simply escaped our

notice? To discover these creatures, and

learn more about how they have adapted

to life in the ocean darkness, we must

explore in new ways and see with “new eyes.”

Funded by NOAA OE, Operation Deep Scope sailed

aboard Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution’s

(HBOI) R/V Seward Johnson II, and featured use of new

and one-of-a-kind equipment. The science team

included international experts in optical oceanography

and visual ecology. Innovative and advanced camera

systems made it easier to see animals under extremely

dim light, without disturbing them. Scientists also

deployed newly designed light-tight traps in hopes of

bringing new deep-sea to the surface, alive and with

their remarkable eyes intact. 

This exploration to the northern Gulf of Mexico was in

a geologically complex region. With basins, canyons,

escarpments, and seeps, this region is better suited to

exploration by submersible than by traditional sampling

with nets and trawls. It’s an area of intense biological

interest, after the recent discovery of rich communities

of tubeworms, associated predators, and other organisms, whose food web is based on chemicals from

methane seeps.

Deep Scope scientists explored life up to 3,000 feet

deep at four sites, measuring and characterizing light

from the sun and from bioluminescence in these

ecosystems. Light has been described as the most

powerful selective force in evolutionary history.

Understanding how animals adapted to light in their

environments—to see and be seen (or not be

seen)—will provide insight into the nature

of life in these unusual communities.

Sampling with nets and brief visits with

submersibles and remotely operated

vehicles (ROVs) have significant

limitations. Bottom trawling nets can

damage animals and destroy habitats, and

may grossly underestimate the number of

animals present. Submersibles and ROVs use

noisy thrusters and bright lights that undoubtedly

frighten off animals and certainly disturb their

behaviors. Advances in underwater imaging and optical

system design opened an exciting new frontier for

ocean exploration. The mission’s main goal was set

forth at the 2000 President’s Panel for Ocean

Exploration: to “see the oceans through a new set of

technological ‘eyes.’” 

Another aspect of the mission targeted dive sites in a

region of escalating gas and oil exploitation. These

studies will provide a better understanding of associated

rich biological communities, which is essential for their

proper management and protection. 

Edie Widder, senior scientist at and director of HBOI’s

Bioluminescence Department, co-led the team. She

made the first video recordings of ocean bioluminescence, developed both Eye-in-the-Sea, a deep-sea

observatory to record bioluminescence behaviors, and

another system now the standard in the U.S. Navy for

measuring bioluminescence. 

Co-leader Tamara Frank, head of HBOI’s Visual Ecology

Department, addressed the challenge of getting animals

to the surface without lights damaging their eyes. Frank

used light-tight, baited traps, designed by HBOI’s

Engineering Division. Preliminary findings showed that

crabs collected in light-tight traps still had extremely

34

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Operation Deep Scope
sensitive eyes, but those

collected under the bright

submersible lights and

brought to the surface in

transparent containers, were

completely blinded. 

Dive locations included a

spectacular deepwater coral

reef known as Viosca Knoll,

methane seeps where

chemosynthetic clams and

worms rely on methaneeating bacteria for nutrition,

and the Brine Pool, a bizarre

site where salt deposits from

beneath the seafloor dissolve to create water so dense it

forms a shallow lake 2,100 feet below the ocean’s

surface. 

The value of the new camera was seen in compelling

deep-sea predator footage, and data to support a new

theory about how some animals may use polarized light

to find prey. Footage showed many animals including a

12-foot sixgill shark, and a six-foot squid that could be

a new species. “Knowing something like that could be

discovered in such a short time, it’s difficult not to

conclude that countless strange, beautiful, and

important discoveries still await us in the depths,” 

said Widder.

The camera system uses new technology and very low

levels of red light that deep-sea animals can’t see, to

image animals and behaviors scientists might otherwise

35

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

never observe. An electronic

jellyfish lure to mimic bioluminescent displays by deepsea animals, appears in

some clips to have attracted

animals, suggesting the system could be important for

studying bioluminescence

uses in the deep sea. 

Charles Mazel, of Physical

Sciences, Inc., discovered

the world’s first known

fluorescent shark using

special blue filters on the

submersible’s lights. And

Mike Matz, from the University of Florida, unexpectedly

discovered that methane hydrates are brilliantly

fluorescent. Methane hydrates, ice crystals that trap

fossil fuel methane, are a potential energy source and

knowledge they fluoresce could lead to new detection

techniques. Widder discovered a bioluminescent

anemone not previously known to produce light and

she found that Venus flytrap anemones produce a bioluminescent slime, though its use is not clear. The team

collected fluorescent crabs, corals, anemones, and fish

they will study for fluorescent proteins that might

benefit genomic and other biotechnology research.

“This has been exploration in its purest form, something

that is all too rare,” said Widder. “To say this cruise 

was a success would be an understatement. We are

returning with an embarrassment of riches.” 

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Operation Deep Scope

Northern Gulf of Mexico

Explored deep sea life and use and effects 

of light

August 7-17, 2004

R/V Seward Johnson II

Johnson-Sea-Link (JSL) I, manned submersible

International Science Team

“Eye-in-the-Sea” Camera Proof-of-Concept

First known species of fluorescent shark

Fluorescence from methane hydrates seen
The “South Atlantic Bight” is the

continental shelf off the southeastern U.S. It stretches from

Cape Hatteras and Diamond Shoals off

North Carolina, past the cuspate

coastline and broad shelf of the

Carolinas and Georgia, and down to the

Gulf Stream north of the narrow Florida

Straits at Cape Canaveral. Fishery scientists

and marine ecologists have researched and

monitored the shelf and nearshore habitats and

have closely studied the interaction of productive

coastal waters and associated marine life on the bottom.

Offshore waters of the region were relatively unexplored

until the second half of the twentieth century, when

vessels of the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (a

predecessor to NOAA) began exploratory commercial

fishing in the 1960s. Interests in petroleum exploration

in the 1970s led to additional studies aimed at further

describing habitats and assemblages of algae, invertebrates, and fishes associated with hard- or live-bottom

reefs of the continental shelf.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and the South

Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCNDR)

monitor fish populations and NOAA’s Center for Coastal

Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research

conducted additional research and monitoring on invertebrate communities. The area is home to one of the 13

National Marine Sanctuaries, Gray’s Reef, that continues

to be a focus of coral reef research. Previous research

has concentrated on shallow, productive coastal waters

and coral reefs of the continental shelf. Recent NOAA

expeditions and other research in the region have

focused on the Charleston Bump, a bottom feature that

influences the flow of the Gulf Stream, enhances

productivity, and is an important fishing ground. Areas of

the ocean offshore of the Charleston Bump, however,

are virtually unexplored.

Estuary to the Abyss expanded on

existing sampling and surveys

conducted along the Latitude 31-

30 Transect, by extending the

transect down onto the

continental slope and the Blake

Plateau, exploring the diverse

habitats and species assemblages

along the deep end of the transect.

Scientists collected data to examine the

effects of habitat, management, terrestrial runoff,

oceanographic features, and physical gradients on

faunal assemblages, ranging from bacteria to fishes. One

goal was to determine faunal change and human impact

along a gradient of increasing depth and increasing

distance from land, combined with variable hydrography and bottom complexity. The science team used

submersibles, dredges, nets, and associated oceanographic and photo-documentation gear to describe

diverse habitats, features, oceanography, and faunal

assemblages. They mapped bottom features with sonar,

explored unique habitats, observed and sampled faunal

changes along a transect in depths between 500-2,000

meters, collected new and unusual species and samples

of deep-water non-migratory fishes to examine impacts

of antimicrobial resistance in the marine realm.

Using a research submersible, small dredges and trawls,

and plankton nets, scientists collected corals, mollusks,

decapods, and other organisms to elucidate patterns of

recruitment and growth. Bacteria cultures were obtained

from deep-ocean non-migratory fishes, and shipped to

Louisiana State University where investigators at the

School of Veterinary Medicine will look for the presence

of antimicrobial resistant organisms.

Based on historical bottom-sounding maps and the

ship’s sonar, 20 dive sites were selected as likely to have

diverse habitats and organisms. At one point, the 

36

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Estuary to the Abyss
submersible’s operators

controlled the mechanical

arm to pick up one of the

most unusual fishes many

of the scientists had ever

seen. Byron White, a

marine biologist at the

SCDNR Marine Resources

Research Institute, identified it as a Sladenia shaefersi or “Shaefer’s anglerfish,” and scientists named

the specimen, “Bubba.”

Only two specimens were

previously seen, one off

the coast of Colombia in

1976 and the other later near Aruba. This third sighting

was far north of its known range. Geographic range was

also extended for the mollusk, (Bayerotrochus midas).

While watching video of another dive, scientists

identified a frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus).

Though the species has been caught in nets, it’s believed

this was the first time this rare species was seen in its

natural habitat.

Rock and sediment samples were collected and samples

of corals and mollusks were obtained to determine age

and climatic history. Scientists are interested in dead

coral samples because like trees, they have growth rings

that could tell stories about past climate over decades, or

even centuries. These observations could prove useful in

forecasting climate in the area.

The expedition team was led by Principal Investigator

George Sedberry from the Marine Research Institute at

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

(SCDNR), and included scientists expert in ichthyology,

37

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

fisheries biology, geology, invertebrate systematics/taxonomy,

marine geology, engineering,

data management, formal and

informal education, benthic

ecology, reef biology, deep-sea

biology and geography. Five

graduate students on the cruise

corresponded with high school

and undergraduate students 

and two educators-at-sea were

involved in all activities, and

corresponded with secondary

and college marine biology and

marine geology classes. 

Partners in the expedition included NOAA OE, NOS,

NCCOS, NCDDC and Fisheries; SCDNR; South

Carolina Aquarium; and College of Charleston.

“By extending sampling to waters between 1,800 and

3,000 meters deep, we collected and observed several

rare and poorly known fishes and other organisms,”

remarked Sedberry. “But more exploration is needed to

expand this transect out onto the edge of the Blake

Plateau and beyond. The Blake Scarp, Blake Ridge, and

Blake Spur are poorly known, but bathymetry maps

indicate they are areas with complex bottom topography

in much greater depths than sampled previously,” he

said. “Future explorations should examine these

fascinating deepwater habitats, which show promise for

harboring rare, unusual new species. Every dive,

observation or collection from the deep sea off the

southeastern U.S. brings new or unusual species and

additional knowledge of the sea just beyond our shores.”

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Estuary to the Abyss

Exploring deeper waters on Latitude 31-30

Observing faunal changes along the transect

August 20 – September 1, 2004

R/V Seward Johnson II

Johnson-Sea-Link (JSL) II, manned submersible

13 JSL dives/more than 30 hours bottom time

Deep-sea non-migratory fishes studied for anti

bacterial resistance

Corals and mollusks to be analyzed for age and

climate history
When diving on deep-sea corals,

it is hard not to notice the

many invertebrates that are

associated with the corals. Deep-sea

gorgonian corals provide habitat for

many other creatures because corals add

habitat complexity, altering the seafloor

by adding a large structure for other

organisms to climb up on to reach higher

into the water column. Many of these organisms

are also suspension feeders, like the corals. The higher

up they rise into the water column, the more food they

will find. We find many invertebrates living on corals,

including brittle stars, basket stars, crinoids (sea lilies),

polychaetes, galathaeid crabs, and sponges. 

Few studies have focused specifically on the

assemblages associated with deep-sea coral species.

Submersible observations of precious corals and other

gorgonians found in the precious corals beds on several

islands and seamounts in the Hawaiian Archipelago

have shown that a number of species may inhabit a

single coral tree. Additionally, it appears that

each species of coral consistently harbors

different characteristic species. Despite

these observations, none of these fauna

have been quantified, and few have

been identified. On this cruise,

scientists examined coral-associated

invertebrate fauna at three large precious

coral beds in the Hawaiian Archipelago, the

Makapu’u Bed, on the southeast slope of Oahu,

the Keahole Bed, on the western slope of Hawaii, and

the Cross Seamount Bed. The most abundant coral

species in these three beds are the pink coral, Corallium

secundum, the red coral Corallium regale, and the gold

coral Gerardia sp. These species are concentrated at

depths of 300-500 meters. 

Investigators included Drs. Amy Baco-Taylor and

Timothy Shank from Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institution, and Thomas Shirley from University 

of Alaska, Fairbanks. Graduate students from the

University were also part of the science team and

collected and identified coral-associated invertebrates

to use for species identification and to determine

community structure. They also sought to compare the

lists of invertebrate species associated with each coral

species to determine if certain invertebrates prefer to

live on certain species of corals.

The team operated from the the Hawaii Undersea

Research Laboratory’s (HURL’s) Research Vessel

Ka’imikai-O-Kanaloa, and used the manned submersible Pisces V and the remotely operated vehicle

RCV-150. HURL was established by the University of

Hawaii and NOAA’s National Undersea Research

Program (NURP), and is one of six NURP centers.

38

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

KEY EXPEDITIONS

Deep Sea Precious Corals
The mission was a successful

one. A total of 185 coral

specimens were collected

and identified from eight

dives made on three precious

coral beds. All the coral

specimens or the appropriate

pieces collected on the

cruise were sent to museums

for curation and taxonomy.

Specimen donations were

made to the Smithsonian

Institution and the California

Academy of Sciences.

Providing specimens to

museums allows for additional outreach to the public and benefits the scientific

community because it makes the specimens available

for species descriptions, for museum displays and for

comparisons to future collections. 

“All of the coral beds had a very diverse assemblage of

both precious and non-precious corals,” said BacoTaylor. “Precious corals are used to make jewelry and

they used to be collected using tangle nets. We found

an old tangle net at Makapuu where the heavy bar and

chains were used to break up the corals and a net was

attached to the chains to collect all the pieces,” she

said. “As you can imagine, this was very destructive to

the coral beds.”

39

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

Faunal assemblages on the

corals included species from

13 different phyla and a

large number of lesser taxa.

Some of these species may

represent range extensions.

Additional invertebrate identifications are being completed primarily by Tom

Shirley and his students.

Anemone specimens have

been donated to Daphne

Fautin, at the Natural

History Museum in Kansas,

who will provide identifications. Dr. Emilio Garcia, Professor Emeritus, ULL, is

assisting with identification of selected gastropods.

Dr. Stephen Cairns from the Smithsonian Institute

provided species identification for all octocorals

collected on the cruise, which included at least three

new species. Dr. Dennis Opresko has begun identifying

the Antipatharians collected. 

Additionally, Dr. Les Watling of Darling Marine

Laboratory will add the Chrysogorgiids collected on this

cruise to his studies revising the taxonomy of this family.

EXPEDITION AT A GLANCE 

Deep Sea Precious Corals

Hawaiian Islands and Seamounts

Investigators Amy Baco-Taylor and Timothy 

Shank from Woods Hole Oceanographic 

Institution, and Thomas Shirley, University 

of Alaska, Fairbanks

October 2-18, 2004

HURL R/V Ka’imikai-O-Kanaloa

Manned submersible Pisces V, 8 dives

RCV-150, 12 dives

At least three new species discovered
40

NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Aquanautix Consulting

Arctic Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg

Bridgewater State College

C & C Technologies, Inc. of Lafayette, LA

California State University, Chico

College of Charleston, Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences

College of Charleston, Grice Marine Biological Laboratory

Connecticut Sea Grant

Dalhousie University

Dauphin Island Sea Lab and University of Alabama

Discovery Communications Science Channel

Droycon Bioconcepts, Inc., Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Duke University

East Carolina University

Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

Florida Atlantic University

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Girl Scouts of the USA (Fox Valley Girl Scout Council, Columbia River Council, 

Arizona Cactus Pine Council, Mount Magazine Council, Gulf Coast of Florida

Council, Lone Star Council)

Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Savannah, GA

Group Alliance, Moscow

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution

Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL)

Immersion Presents

Institute for Exploration

Institute of Microbiology, Moscow

Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (Lower Hutt, New Zealand)

Jason Foundation for Education

Johns Hopkins University

Louisiana State University, LSU Wildlife Hospital

Marine Conservation Biology Institute

MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) Center

Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

Mitretek Systems

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

Montana State University, Bozeman

Mystic Aquarium

National Geographic Society

National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology, Institute for

Marine Resources and Environment, Japan

National Marine Fisheries Service-National Systematics Laboratory

National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP)

Naval Historical Center Underwater Archaeology Branch

NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center

NOAA Arctic Research Office

NOAA Library

NOAA Marine & Aviation Operations

NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

NOAA National Ocean Service

NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center

NOAA National Undersea Research Program

NOAA National Ocean Service

NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research

NOAA Satellite & Information Service

NOAA Vents Program, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

NOAA Weather Service

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Northeastern University- Department of Earth Science

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Okayama University

Oregon State University - CIMRS

Oregon State University- Department of Oceanography

Pacific Oceanological Institute—Russian Federation

Pacific Oceanological Institute, Vladivostok

Pacific Region Oceana, Inc.

PAST Foundation

Physical Sciences Inc.

Polynesian Voyaging Society

ROPOS/Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility

Roshydromet

ROV Engineering and Operations Support Contractor

Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Federation Navy

Shirshov Institute of Oceanography, Moscow

Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History

South Carolina Aquarium

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Marine Resources Research Institute

Southeastern Regional Taxonomic Center 

State of Maryland

State of Massachusetts

State of New Hampshire

State Research Navigation Hydrographic Institute – Russian Federation

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

The DesignPond

The History Channel

The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, MD

Tolland High School

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA

U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Area Search Detachment Team

University of Alabama, Department of Geological Sciences

University of Alaska, Fairbanks

University of Alaska, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, 

Institute of Marine Science

University of Alaska, Southeast

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of Connecticut- National Undersea Research Center

University of Florida

University of Hawaii 

University of Louisiana at Lafayette-Department of Biology

University of Maine

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

University of Quebec, Montreal

University of Rhode Island- Institute for Ocean Engineering & 

Graduate School of Oceanography

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

University of Texas at Dallas

University of Ulm, Germany

University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

University of Washington JISAO [Joint Institute]

University of West Florida

Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, Providence, RI

Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre, QBI, University of Queensland, Australia

VNIIOkeangeologia, St. Petersburg, Russia

Western Washington University

Whitehead & Mueller, Inc.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Woodstock Community School District’s Girls Take Off Program

Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation for their support.
Inside front cover – Stunning yellow Enallopsammia stony

coral with pink Candidella teeming with brittle stars. Photo

courtesy of the Mountains in the Sea Research Team; the IFE

Crew; and NOAA.

Page 4 – Top right photo: Beautiful bouquet of Lophelia,

Candidella, and solitary cup corals with brittle stars, crinoids,

and various sponges. Photo courtesy of the Mountains in the

Sea Research Team; the IFE Crew; and NOAA. Middle left

photo: A small sea urchin brought to the surface by the

Johnson Sea Link II. Middle right photo: An arcturid isopod

clings to a branch of an octocoral. This photo was taken using

a camera mounted to a microscope. The field of view of the

photo is 3 millimeters. Bottom photo: This polycheate worm

gathered in the first box core was almost 7 cm in length.

Some of the scientists believe the white spots visible in the

body are eggs. Photo courtesy Casey Debenham.

Page 5 – Scientists on the 2004 Gulf of Alaska Seamount

expedition crowd around the bio boxes at the front of the

Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin, eager to see what was

collected during that day's dive. Photo courtesy Jeff Pollack.

Page 8 – Top photo: USS 0-9. Photo courtesy U.S. Naval

Institute. Bottom photo: Artist's rendition of USS 0-9 before

its sinking. Image courtesy NOAA's Rick Yorczyk.

Page 9 – Great Lakes shipwrecks. Photos courtesy Thunder

Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Page 10 – Ranges and depths of marine animals were charted

in earlier NOAA-sponsored projects for a Census of Marine

Life. Images courtesy NOAA and Oregon State University.

Page 11 – Bouquet of Corallium with deep purple Trachythela

octocoral, brittle stars, crinoids, and sponges. Photo courtesy

of the Mountains in the Sea Research Team; the IFE Crew; and

NOAA.

Page 12 – Top right photo: Corals can also grow on other

corals. Here we see a colony of the primnoid Callogorgia

with Gerardia sp. growing over it. An unbranched basket star

in the genus Asteroschema has also made its home on this

colony. Photo courtesy Amy Baco-Taylor; Thomas Shirley;

pilots T. Kerby and M. Cremer; and NOAA. Bottom left

photo: a small Acanthogorgiid coral being collected by the

Pisces V manipulator. You can see 2 anemones in the lower

left of the colony and the claw of a chirostylid crab. Photo

courtesy Amy Baco-Taylor; Thomas Shirley; pilots T. Kerby

and M. Cremer; and NOAA.

Page 13 – The orange gas hydrate is home to Hesiocaeca

methanicola, a newly discovered species of marine worm

found in the Gulf of Mexico in 1997. This lobe of hydrate

was exposed on the seafloor. The Deep East Expedition will

investigate the life above and in a shallow bed on the Blake

Ridge where other lobes of exposed gas hydrates are believed

to be located. NOAA photo.

Page 14 – Robotic arms gather samples from the ocean floor.

Photo courtesy URI/IFE and the Mountains in the Sea

expedition team.

Page 15 – Top left photo: After conversion in a shipyard, the

former Navy ship USNS Capable will become NOAA's only

ship dedicated to exploring unknown or little known ocean

areas. Photo courtesy U.S. Navy. Bottom right photo:

Hercules ROV. Photo courtesy IFE.

Page 16 – Students from Porter Gaud school in Charleston

visit NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown. NOAA photo.

Page 17 – Teachers in action at a NOAA-sponsored

Professional Development Institute use lesson plans 

from NOAA's Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean

Exploration. NOAA photo and images.

Page 18 – Top left photo: Outreach extended from NOAA

ship Ronald H. Brown at sea to a satellite-connected press

conference in Savannah as part of the Sea Island G-8 Summit.

NOAA's Ben Sherman takes an audience question for 

Dr. Robert Ballard and NOAA Capt. Craig McLean who were

on the ship 12,000 feet above the wreck of RMS Titanic, on

a NOAA-sponsored "Return to Titanic" mission. NOAA

photo. Bottom right photo: Students at UCAP school in

Providence, R.I. talk by satellite phone with NOAA scientist

and former UCAP employee Catalina Martinez while she is in

a submersible more than 8,000 feet deep in the Gulf of

Alaska. NOAA photo.

Page 19 – Top right photo: Ocean Hall planning meeting.

NOAA photo. Bottom left photo: Artist's rendition for Ocean

Hall. Image courtesy Smithsonian Institution. 

Page 22 – Top photo: Unusual spiny crab spotted on NW

Rota 1 volcano. Crabs are opportunistic predators at vent

sites. The body of this crab is ~2 in. (~5 cm) across. NOAA

photo. Bottom photo: White chimneys at Champagne vent

site, NW Eifuku volcano. The chimneys are ~20 cm (8 in)

across and ~50 cm (20 in) high, venting fluids at 103oC

(217oF). Notice the bubbles in the upper left portion of the

image. NOAA photo.

Page 23 – Three-dimensional view of the Maug caldera 

(2 times vertical exaggeration). EM300 bathymetry data (10

meter grid cell size), ranging in depth from 241 to 25 m (790-

82 ft). On this 2004 Submarine Ring of Fire expedition, the

Maug survey was completed, providing complete coverage

over the shallow central lava dome. NOAA image.

Page 24 – Lovely spiraling Iridigorgia coral with brightly

colored (apparent) commensal shrimp. Photo courtesy

Mountains in the Sea Research Team; the IFE Crew; and

NOAA.

Page 25 – A crab strikes an aggressive pose to protect this

oasis of spectacular diversity. Photo courtesy the Mountains

in the Sea Research Team; the IFE Crew; and NOAA.

Page 26 – Top photo: ROV light on Titanic's deck. Photo

courtesy IFE/URI/NOAA. Bottom photo: Rusticle-covered

bow of Titanic. Photo courtesy IFE/URI/NOAA.

Page 27 – The Institute for Exploration's remotely operated

vehicle (ROV), Hercules, investigates boxes on the stern of

Titanic during the 2004 expedition to the wreck site. Photo

courtesy IFE/URI/NOAA.

Page 28 – Top photo: A robust sample of benthic marine life.

Photo courtesy Bodil Bluhm. Bottom photo: Sonar images of

the Piips volcano, investigated during the first leg of the

RUSALCA Arctic expedition. Image courtesy V. Gladish from

VNIIOkeangeologia, St. Petersburg.

Page 29 – The Russian R/V Professor Khromov sails to the

next science station. Photo courtesy U.S.-Russian science

team.

PHOTO CREDITS

Page 30 – Mission scientists and explorers found that

shipwrecks deep in the Gulf of Mexico supported life,

including “forests” of coral as seen here on the wreck of the

Gulf Penn. Photo courtesy of expedition team.

Page 31 – A 37 mm deck gun on the wreck of the German

submarine U-166, sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo

courtesy C & C Technologies.

Page 32 – Top photo: DSV Alvin and WHOI R/V Atlantis,

swimmers Bruce Strickrott and Sean McPeak (Chief Alvin

Pilot and Alvin Electronics Technician, respectively) working

the recovery. Photo courtesy Jeff Pollack. Bottom photo:

Multibeam image of Ely Seamount, showing a deep caldera

and lava flows. Image courtesy Jason Chaytor and Rachel

Teasdale.

Page 33 – Large primnoid coral loaded with brittle stars on

Dickens Seamount. Photo courtesy NOAA, WHOI, the Alvin

group, and the 2004 Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition

science party.

Page 34 – This Caranchid squid, about four-inches across,

uses transparency to hide from potential predators. Openwater divers can more easily observe these creatures with

polarizing filters. Photo courtesy Edie Widder.

Page 35 – Note the green fluorescence of the eyes of this

short-nose greeneye fish. The submersible team collected the

specimen for optical studies in the ship’s onboard laboratory.

Under white light, the green lenses of this six-inch greeneye

fish are still quite apparent. Photo courtesy Edie Widder.

Page 36 – Once on board ship, “Bubba” was measured,

weighed, studied, and preserved. A sample of his bacteria

was also taken for Mark Mitchell’s antimicrobial study. The

“fishing poles” on his head are illiceum, or the first and

second spines of the dorsal fin. These attract prey, which

swim just above his huge mouth. He then sucks the prey in.

Note the centimeter scale markings on the white table. Photo

courtesy SCDNR.

Page 37 – A transparent squid that hovered near the JohnsonSea-Link II submersible at the Sandy Tongue dive site today.

We did not attempt to collect this cephalopod, because it was

too delicate for the sub’s suction sampling mechanism. Photo

courtesy SCDNR.

Page 38 – Top photo: A close-up of the same crab and coral

as in the last 2 images. This crab species was fairly common.

Bottom photo: An Acanthogorgiid that was collected is

shown here on the lab bench ready for preservation and

counting of epifauna. Chirostylid crabs, anemones,

Asteroschema - the unbranched basket star, and polychaetes

were the most common epifauna. Photos courtesy Amy BacoTaylor; Thomas Shirley; pilots T. Kerby and M. Cremer; and

NOAA.

Page 39 – The Asteroschema were also on many species of

corals. On this bamboo coral, there were 6 large

Asteroschema. You can see their long, yellow arms on the

back of the colony and several more in the coral on the right.

Photo courtesy Amy Baco-Taylor; Thomas Shirley; pilots 

T. Kerby and M. Cremer; and NOAA.

41

FISCAL YEAR 2004 ANNUAL REPORT
For more information, contact:

The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration

1315 East West Highway, 10th Floor

Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

Tel: 301-713-9444

www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration