The news came suddenly but was not unexpected. Our month-long science voyage on Australia’s largest research vessel, Investigator, was cancelled due to ever-tightening restrictions as the COVID19 crisis escalated around the world. Together with my close colleague Jody Webster
Simultaneously, the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor
Following the Falkor’s last fully science-crewed expedition to the Ningaloo Canyons
With the immediate crisis behind us, Eric posed whether the Falkor could conduct some opportunistic multibeam mapping and ROV SuBastian dives in the GBR and Coral Sea. In my mind I went, “Hmm, let me think about that for one second!” Absolutely, we could. As background, colleagues and I have been doing mapping expeditions along the GBR continental slope and offshore Coral Sea for over ten years, leading to many science papers on submarine canyons, drowned reefs and landslides - all seafloor features revealed by advanced multibeam mapping technology. Here was an opportunity for the Falkor to map the gaps, revealing more of this iconic reef system.
So began two weeks of intense voyage proposal writing, reviews, ship track planning, permit application revisions, fine-tuning of science objectives, reaching out to collaborators, developing outreach and media plans – most of which is usually done over a period of at least a year. Our deadline was to get the detailed Cruise Support Plan approved in time for the Falkor to sail on 29 April for a month in the Coral Sea. However, no science crew would be onboard due to COVID19 restrictions. So how could this be done, with myself as a (virtual) Chief Scientist?
Now this was an entirely new concept for me. Not being onboard means I do not have the immediate situational awareness one normally has when making decisions, like where to go next or what target sites to choose. For a virtual expedition to be successful, it is fundamentally all about communications. Technically, it requires excellent VSAT to satellite internet connections on the ship
I called my family over to the monitor as they recovered the ROV on the aft deck. You can imagine their excitement watching this event from the perspective of a camera looking up into the Falkor’s hull with propellers thrashing and bubbles flying about, then bursting through the surface to see people on the back deck reaching out to secure the ROV. It is certainly not your everyday COVID19 stay-at-home event. Later, we had the TeamViewer app running which gave me exact view of the multibeam acquisition screen, just as if I was in the Ops Room watching the seafloor being mapped.
Now after the first (virtual) day at sea, I think the bigger challenge will be the communications amongst the science team onshore, not because of any interpersonal issues, but simply because none of us are in any normal working situation. We are all dealing with state-by-state lockdown restrictions, and working from home with all those difficulties. So we will do our best to make this expedition a success. But if anything, this voyage brings some positive news amongst the background of woe, and proves that you can conduct science expeditions in a time of COVID19.