In a review of the status of U.S. ocean science, published in February, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine emphasized the need to invest in ocean research equipment, echoing calls from the ocean science community that more funding and support are needed to maintain the United States’ position as a leader in ocean science.
“We have much work to do,” the authors wrote. “We need all hands on deck.”
“We are eagerly anticipating the ability to support even more exciting science in some of the most challenging to access regions of the planet.”
Two new midsize remotely operated vehicles (mROVs), supported by awards from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and NOAA, will be part of that effort. The new submersibles will be used by scientists for undersea research in coastal and nearshore waters.
Design of the mROVs, led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Greensea IQ, an ocean robotics company, has begun.
“We are eagerly anticipating the ability to support even more exciting science in some of the most challenging to access regions of the planet,” said Brian Midson, program director for Ship and Submersible Support at the National Science Foundation, in a statement.
Submersible Science
The current deep-submergence vehicles available to the U.S. scientific community as part of the Academic Research Fleet are operated by the National Deep Submergence Facility, a WHOI group funded by NSF, the Office of Naval Research, and NOAA. These vehicles include Jason, an ROV equipped with video and sampling equipment that is capable of submerging 6,500 meters (4 miles); Alvin, which can carry three people and also submerge to 6,500 meters (4 miles); and Sentry, which is used for autonomous mapping and imaging and can submerge 6,000 meters (3.7 miles).
The existing vehicles have played a “key role in advancing ocean science in the last decade,” according to the National Academies report. However, they are designed to operate on existing ships within the Academic Research Fleet, which can limit their research scope. And growing interest from researchers in using ROVs in coastal and nearshore waters revealed a need for additional, smaller ROVs, according to the report.
In 2022, a committee at the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System, which oversees the operation of the U.S. Academic Fleet, also recommended funding a new midsize ROV. “An NDSF [National Deep Submergence Facility] mROV would bring increased capability and accessibility to American deep-submergence scientists,” the committee wrote.
“What is needed now are platforms that fill the niche between large, work-class vehicles such as Jason and small vehicles used primarily for observation,” said Andy Bowen, director of the National Deep Submergence Facility, in a statement.
The two new mROVs are meant to operate with smaller crews and with a smaller footprint than the existing deep-submergence vehicles. They’ll be able to reach depths of 4,000 meters (2.5 miles). Equipment such as cameras, lights, manipulator arms, sensors, and samplers will be added as needed, depending on mission requirements. The new mROVs will free up the ROV Jason, in particular, to prioritize science that requires the larger ROV, Midson said in the statement.
The two mROVs are designed to be used with three under-construction Regional Class Research Vessels intended for scientific missions in the coastal and nearshore waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico.
Sea trials for the mROVs are expected to start in 2026, according to an NSF spokesperson. They are planned to be available for use by the scientific community in 2027. One mROV will be operated by WHOI’s National Deep Submergence Facility, and the other will be operated by the University of Southern Mississippi as part of the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
Deep-Sea Investigations
The mROV that the University of Southern Mississippi will operate is planned to support a project that aims to restore seafloor habitats in the Gulf of Mexico damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
“This ROV is going to be instrumental to the restoration effort.”
“This ROV is going to be instrumental to the restoration effort,” said Leila Hamdan, a marine microbial biologist and vice president for research at the University of Southern Mississippi, in a statement.
The new mROVs will also help scientists better understand the “vastly unexplored” deep ocean, which contains mineral resources such as polymetallic nodules and supports important fisheries, an NSF spokesperson said in an email.
“The mROVs themselves are only the tip of the iceberg,” Bowen said in the WHOI statement. “The mROV concept advances exploration and understanding and we’re excited to be expanding our impact through this unique new program.”
Despite funding uncertainties, both projects are expected to move forward as planned, according to NSF and NOAA. However, NOAA public affairs officer Theo Stein wrote in an email that the agency “can’t speculate on the effects of the recent terminations or how that may or may not affect certain programs,” referring to recent mass layoffs of NOAA employees.
—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer