(Nicole Raineault) I think part of it is the adventure of exploration and the unknown. The idea
that we're out here getting data where scientists usually can't go and
providing them with just enough data that they can come back and explore
areas of the deep sea that are relatively inaccessible. But of course
the team is what makes it. We have a really diverse team as far as
backgrounds and even experience levels and that makes just being out here a lot
of fun. (Steve Auscavitch) We don't get many opportunities to come out to remote areas like this.
We're talking about several days transit from the nearest port. Any sort of data
we can collect is immensely valuable - and it won't just be used now or in the next
few years, it'll be used for hundreds of years most likely. And that's really
important that we do a good job in characterizing and asking the questions
to characterize these communities. (Amanda Demopoulos)The animals that we see in the environments
that I study are are dependent on our influence by the environment that
surrounds them. So we have to understand the chemistry, the geochemistry, the
geology, the physical oceanography etc. So it's important to stay up to speed with
math and science - and really, you have to keep studying. Find something that you're
passionate about. And once you figure out what you're passionate about, I think the
rest is easy. (Chris Roman) You have to understand why you're doing
what you're doing. And so, know the engineering, but you need to be
fundamentally curious about the science, right, because you want to find out not
just what the sciences know, but why they want to know it. You know, robotics for
robotics sake, is not making strides in oceanography. Now, it's robotics
integrated with oceanography is making strides. (Ruth Blake) If you have a hypothesis to test. Or, if
you want to collect a type of sample in an area that's being explored. You know,
maybe you just need some initial results, or just have an idea that something is
there - to be able to go down and have an actual look at an area that you have
some ideas about or, in this case, to take these samples. (Kaitlin Kovacs) We put these push cores on the
ROV and they have these nice little handles on. And so we stick it in to get
this profile of the sediment. And then once it comes up, we do a couple of
things to it. We look at the sediment chemistry and that can tell us what kind
of animals might hypothetically live there - and then we actually sort through
the sediment to see what animals are there. (Peter Girguis) I think exploration is is a
critical dimension of science. It's easy to get caught up in thinking
that science requires that you have a hypothesis. In other words, you say "I
believe these fish eat A, B and C" and you go out and test it. And that is really
the best way to do science and to kind of robustly understand what that
organism is doing. But if we don't do exploration, then we're missing out on
discovering those things that we don't know, right, there's no really no other
way to do it. And so it is incredibly beneficial to advancing science because
we see and learn new things. (Jamie Wagner) There are limited numbers of berths on
any research vessel - and by allowing people to tune in via the internet, we
can get more scientific lines watching and contributing information on every
single dive - so we can get better ideas of geological and biological features, and
try to collect organisms or geology that someone might need for their own
research and get their opinions, and help them in their own projects, which we
wouldn't be able to do just by lack of berths otherwise.
(Peter Girguis) You know, you look at the best scientists and they have so many different
strengths, and so many of their own individual weaknesses, that it really
takes all of us as a team to advance our understanding of science - and that's how
it gets done.