They Asked Joe About Underwater Exploration

Exciting
Boring (only sometimes!)
Technically challenging
Hard being away from home.

At times, being a deep sea ROV pilot is like being on another planet. The creatures under the sea move differently, live in very cold temperatures and never see sunlight. Some of them look like cartoon characters—brightly colored and weirdly shaped.

At other times, being the pilot is nerve-wracking because you have to pay very close attention for a long time, to make sure nothing goes wrong with your equipment. A lot could go wrong, for a lot of reasons. The ROV is like a very strong balloon, filled with air. Because it’s used deep under water, the ocean is squeezing the outside of the balloon—hard. The ROV holds a lot of electronic equipment to take scientific measurements, make videos and capture some of the sea creatures. The equipment works best when the air around it stays very still, the temperature is always the same, and the ROV isn’t moving through water. So the pilot has to watch very, very carefully—without starting to think about something else, like what’s for dinner or watching a movie—in case the vehicle breaks down or the equipment stops working. On top of all that, the pilot has to “fly” the ROV more than a mile down into the ocean with remote controls while watching the action on a video screen. If something does go wrong, you have to figure out how to fix it without pulling the vehicle back to the surface. That would waste a lot of time and could ruin the experiments. There’s no way to send a human mechanic down to the ROV, either, so the pilot has to have a lot of imagination to solve problems with limited tools. That’s a lot of responsibility!

One of the most interesting things about working on a scientific expedition is there are so many experts on board from all around the world. Talking to them, the pilot gets to learn about different countries and different kinds of science and engineering. Plus many of these people can tell very funny or strange stories about their adventures.

A hard thing about being on an expedition is you have to get used to living on a ship, and you don’t get to see your family for a long time. That’s hard for the pilot’s family, too.

There are three skills needed:

• Curiosity and knowledge about how machines and electronics work.
• Imagination to figure out where the ROV is going, even though you are operating it from another location, outside the vehicle.
• The ability to tell other people what’s happening, both by writing it down and by talking to them.  

Since the ROV system has a lot of electronic and moving parts, the pilot isn’t just “flying” the machine. He or she also needs the ability to see mechanical problems and figure out how to fix them—even though they might be problems that the pilot has never seen before. You have to keep the machine ready to work at all times, because it costs a lot of money to have everyone out on a ship. You don’t want people waiting around wasting time and money. The pilot and ROV technicians have to make sure the system is ready to dive at all times. It’s important to have technical knowledge to keep the system in good shape and figure out how to solve unusual problems that happen suddenly. If you can do that, you’ll be invited back on other expeditions.

The ROV pilot is the navigator of the system. Sometimes, it is operating in places with no visibility. The pilot has to get the equipment where it needs to go—and back to the boat—with very limited information. No one has been there before. There’s no GPS available! And you aren’t even in the vehicle. A good pilot develops the ability to imagine being in the vehicle and figuring out which way to turn and how far to go. At the same time, the pilot—sometimes with the help of a technician—has to keep track of the very long cord that attaches the ROV to the ship. Otherwise, it might get tangled up, causing trouble.

The third skill is good communication. That’s important in any job. It’s especially important when there is a lot of technical information, that other people might not understand. A good ROV pilot or technicians knows how to explain how much the machine can actually do (some people might think it can do a lot more than is really possible), and what is happening, both when there is a problem and when things are running smoothly. That’s important because everyone on the crew needs the information to do their job in keeping the expedition moving forward.

Oh, wow! That’s what is so exciting and surprising! I’ve been on several expeditions to look for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland. Guess what? We haven’t found it—yet. I’ve seen a lot of strange creatures including one called a Dumbo Octopus (cephalopod), because of its big, floppy ears; many jelly fish (Tinafore, Aulacoctena), sea spiders and corals. The coolest would be the vampire jellyfish, on the 2005 Hidden Ocean expedition. It’s beautiful, with both horizontal and vertical tentacles. We saw one feeding, with all of its tentacles (what we think of as the legs or arms of a jellyfish or octopus) fully stretched out. When it realized something was watching, the creature pulled in its tentacles in a coordinated way and took off into the dark ocean.

It’s hard to say which discovery has been the most significant, because scientists have discovered many new species as well as some everyone thought were extinct. On an expedition in 2007, we found the WWII submarine, the USS Grunion, which had disappeared in 1942. While looking for the Loch Ness Monster in 2002, we found John Cobb’s world-record-breaking speed boat, the Crusader. After reaching speeds of more than 200 mph, it broke up and sank to the bottom of Loch Ness in 1952. The wreckage had been lost for 50 years, but we were able to find it in water more than 600 feet deep.

The man ROV I’ve used for deep sea science exploration is the Oceaneering Global Explorer, capable of diving 3,000 meters under the surface. Over the years, the vehicle has become more complicated, in two ways. First, instead of standard video like you see on even high-definition television, the ROV’s video (we call it “imaging”) equipment is super-high 4K definition. That’s XXX times the HD on your television set and it means scientists can see unbelievable detail. It can even make high-definition, 3-dimensional videos.

The second level of improvements is in the way we collect samples of plants and animals. The earliest versions were almost like using a fishing net on a long pole. Now, the machine is set up with a tray (called a carousel) of containers. The tray is attached to a suction hose and four large jars with lids. The whole devise is called a D-Sampler, because it picks up “detritus”—another word for “stuff.” The pilot sends the suction hose and jars out into the ocean to pick up the samples and deposit them back into the containers on the carousel. This way, we can bring back 16 different plants or creatures for studying at the surface. There is also another box with an “arm” that can collect items—sort of like those boxes you sometimes see in stores, where you use an arm with a claw to try and grab a toy.

The Control Van is where scientists and the ROV pilot work together. We’re watching everything that’s happening on video screens, with cameras located inside the ROV in the ocean. The scientists decide what creatures or items they want to collect, and which tool would be the best one to use. If somebody sees something interesting, he or she calls it out to the operator. Then, depending on what’s happening underwater—is the ROV close enough to reach the item, how fast is the water moving, and other things—a decision is made whether to try and actually capture the thing (called a “specimen” or sample) or just make a video.

If we’re going to collect the specimen, the pilot uses the remote controls—kind of like the controls on a video game box, but better—to get the ROV into position. A co-pilot operates one of the devices mentioned earlier, the collection arm or lidded jars with the suction hose. Each tool works differently. For example, if we’re going to use the D-Samplers (the jars with suction), the pilot steers the ROV so that the jar is over whatever we collecting. Once the thing is in the jar, the co-pilot flips a switch to activate the sliding door that closes the lid. Pretend you are capturing a lightening bug. You pop the jar over the bug, then slide the lid underneath, hoping the bug doesn’t get away before you drop the jar over him and get the lid screwed on.

Other times we use the manipulator, which consists of a set of two mechanical arms. One is a miniature arm inside the Control Van, called the Master Arm. There is another, bigger arm on the outside of the ROV, called the Slave Arm. When the co-pilot moves the Master Arm, the Slave Arm makes the same move outside. The Slave Arm either uses a gripper to grab what we are trying to get, or it might be attached to a suction tube and jar.

Just collecting the sample isn’t the end of the work. The scientists and technicians have tons of paperwork to log everything we collect or video, with records of when, where and how we did the collection. The operation is very much a team effort of a lot of people.

That’s hard to say, because of lot of people I’ve met have been famous in their own field but most people might not recognize their names. All of them are interesting, curious and unbelievably smart. Some, like Peter Byrne and Dr. Robert Rines, are looking for something specific, like the Loch Ness Monster. Others, such as Emory Christof and Ralph White (who found the Titanic, among other amazing things), are looking for new or unknown creatures in the depths of the ocean. Some people are more interested in history. John Abele, wanted to know the fate of his father, Lt. Commander Mannert L. Abele, who was at the helm of the USS Grunion when it was sunk near Kiska Island, Alaska during World War II. All those people, and more, tell fascinating stories about their special interests.

I was born in Lawrence, Kansas, to a TWA airline pilot and a nurse. They each chose their careers because they wanted to see the world. Despite having three daughters and four sons, they managed a lot of travel. I don’t know how my mother survived it, since she normally was the one shepherding the family travels—often loading up the station wagon and driving five hours to a friend’s farm in Lucas, Iowa. We moved a lot as Dad was transferred from one TWA city to another, including Kansas City, Chicago and Los Angeles. We ended up living in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA, where I went to school.

My first memory of working with electronics dates from third or fourth grade, with Dr. John Ehrenborg. We built a wireless radio and ran a big long antenna around the inner quad area of the school. I was amazed when we were able to tune into local radio stations. Dr. Ehrenborg, who died in 2015 at the age of 88, was the first of many great teachers. I was also exposed to Dad’s love of tearing apart and rebuilding antique airplanes, including a 1932 Waco UEC, a 1959 Bellanca Cruisemaster and others. It was common to have airplane parts under restoration in the living room. When company came, the parts might be hidden behind the curtains. My father was a flight instructor in the U.S. Air Force and a check-pilot for TWA, but he didn’t have the disposition to teach kids—or at least his kids—to fly. I took ground school at Santa Barbara City College and learned to fly at the local airport, to earn my private pilot’s license. All these experiences led me to earn a college degree in Aeronautical Engineering, as well as qualifying as a commercial, multi-engine pilot and an Aircraft Airframe and  Power Plant Mechanic.  After working for Lockheed Missiles and Space division as an engineer, I left to start an ROV business with my father and brother, and an on-demand air charter business with my father. 

I spend time flying and maintaining an antique airplane I bought with my father. I live on a small lake, so I swim a lot. I rowed competitively in college and keep up with that sport, too. My three daughters keep me busy with their school and water activities, such as begging to be pulled around the lake in a rubber raft. I also like developing new products and improving existing technology for ROVs.

I’m happy that people seem to be recognizing the oceans aren’t bottomless pits for dumping trash and byproducts. In 2009, we found clouds of plastic trash thousands of meters deep in the Celebes Sea. We’re keeping some areas of the ocean free from commercial use. The wildlife in those areas are protected, so they can spread into the wider ocean to help wildlife there remain healthy. I’m encouraged that we’re trying harder to manage our impact on the oceans, but I’m still worried about the effect of climate change. I read recently that oceans absorb most of the extra heat from the Earth’s rising temperature. We have to keep focusing on maintaining and improving the health of our oceans.

My mentors are my colleagues and friends. The ones that inspire me are most are willing to step up and take a risk on their ideas. They keep trying, even when things don’t work out right away. In terms of my career with ROVs, one of the first ones I bought was made by Benthos. Many years later, I met Chris Nicholson and learned that he had sold an earlier version of the design to Benthos. I’m also still inspired by the scientists of the past, including Copernicus and Isaac Newton, and to all the people who worked on getting human beings to the moon. And, as a pilot, I appreciate those inventors and entrepreneurs who made flying possible.

• Seeing my kids through college 
• Inventing something that does something good for the world
• Improving my hand-writing
• Learning to play the guitar
• Going paragliding
• Participating in a flashmob
• Taking my family white-water rafting
• Be a pilot in command of a jet or turbo-prop
• Participating in an ROV expedition in the Antarctic
• Support the schools and institutions that helped me learn

OK, don’t laugh: Help bring about world peace.  I hope I’m doing that by expanding what we know about the Earth’s oceans.

Be curious. Never stop asking questions and learning. Take things apart to see how they work, especially things that are being thrown away. See if you have any teachers like Dr. Ehrenborg who will teach you to build things. Get a kit and make something. Start simple. Check out the YouTube videos on the winners of the national Robotics competition—they do a lot of fun projects. Most of all, keep at it and have fun!