The exploration vessel Nautilus will be exploring the Quinault Canyon seafloor Aug. 21 through Sept. 3, and if you have internet access you can watch it all live as it happens.
The Nautilus is considered by many to be one of the greatest ocean exploration ships in the world, according to Quinault Indian Nation spokesman Steve Robinson. It is a 211-foot scientific research ship captained by Dr. Robert “Bob” Ballard, who is considered one of the greatest modern explorers of the world’s oceans. He is well known for discovering the resting places of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismark in 1989 and many other lost vessels.
Though known primarily for finding shipwrecks, his exploration of the seas only begins there. In 2008, Dr. Ballard created the Ocean Exploration Trust with the goal of making the ocean accessible to anyone with an internet hookup while conducting scientific expeditions.
Dr. Ballard and his “Corps of Exploration” will be mapping the terrain of the ocean floor, determining habitat types, sampling for harmful algal blooms, checking oxygen levels, investigating ocean acidification and exploring whatever else they find. Importantly they will, for the first time, be able to see and map the habitats that support many of Quinault Indian Nation’s treaty fisheries.
Anyone can see what the Nautilus is doing around the clock by going to www.nautiluslive.org. In August people in Taholah and other communities will have the opportunity to talk directly with onboard scientists and staff via video link while they’re investigating one of the last unexplored areas of the west coast.
The Nautilus has two remotely operated vehicles — the Hercules and the Argus — an onboard laboratory, a large control room for running the remote vehicles, and can berth 48 people. The Nautilus transmits real-time video from its remote vehicles and control room directly to a satellite and onto your computers.
“Quinault Nation is very pleased to be associated with this project,” said Quinault Indian Nation President Fawn Sharp. “Our Marine Resources Scientist will be managing our coordination with the ship, and using the research for his own study of the Quinault Treaty Area.”
She added that there is strong evidence a change in ocean conditions that has led to diminished returns of salmon was caused by climate change.
“It is one of our top goals to restore our salmon, especially the blueback, a sockeye subspecies unique to our Quinault River,” said Sharp. “Quinault Nation has been working hard to assure salmon have a good home to come back to in our rivers. It’s just as important for them to have favorable conditions when they are in their ocean voyage stage. This kind of research is an important part of that effort, and we greatly appreciate the work the scientists are doing.”
This will be the last U.S. stop on a West Coast journey that began in the Channel Islands July 7. The research will map and analyze the Quileute Canyon to the north as well, and will dive on a maritime heritage site, the wreck of the World War II-era submarine USS Bugara, which sank off Cape Flattery in 1971. Then the Nautilus will travel north to explore the ocean networks off the British Columbia coast in Canada.
