UNCW-Undersea Vehicles Program

The R/V Point Sur made it back to the pier in the middle of the night and our teams will start demobilizing the vessel today. We conducted three ROV dives yesterday deploying science equipment in 400 meters and collecting some samples. There were not highlight photos, so I decided to post some nice weather photos from this leg, good looking shelf cloud coming in yesterday off Louisiana. As some of you know, the Mohawk ROV is transferring down to the University of Southern Mississippi this month and will no longer be working out of UNCW. I'm passing this page off to USM staff and they will be headed back offshore with the vehicle in August. I want to personally thank everyone for following along for all the years and hope to see you around.

It's Monday morning and time to go back to the office. The UVP team, scientist, and ships crew just pulled on station in Viosca Knoll in the Gulf of Mexico this am. We have a half day of ROV dives scheduled to deploy some coral settlement devices then we are headed back to shore late tonight to start the demobilization process. Enjoy some of the highlight photos we took Sunday and some sample photos!

Good Sunday morning from the R/V Point Sur. Yesterday the science team as did us ROV operators had the question, what do salps/pyrosomes taste like? Seems like everyone on the bottom of the ocean is eating them. We thought about sucking one up in the suction sampler to give them a try but instead the wonderful chef aboard the Point Sur cooked up some steak in potatoes, they were quite delicious. Enjoy your Sunday and some highlights from yesterday’s three dives!

Good morning from the R/V Point Sur. The science and ROV team completed three ROV dives yesterday consisting of several transects and collecting numerous samples for different scientists. Everyone seemed very pleased with how the day went and we had delicious fried fish supper. Enjoy some highlights and the weekend!

Good Friday evening, we wanted to share some live action photos of the scientist flying around the ROV yesterday afternoon. Everyone had a fantastic time and got to spend some time behind the sticks!

Happy Aloha Friday from the R/V Point Sur. Yesterday the team conducted three ROV dives and they we're all focused on heavy sampling. We collected many items for different purposes and have already picked up over 100 samples in the last 6 days. Today we started heading back East to revisit where we were Wednesday to pick up more samples. Enjoy your Friday and wear your favorite Aloha shirt!

Good morning from the R/V Point Sur. Yesterday the science and ROV team conducted three ROV dives in the 500-600m range and the main objective was to collect samples for the Smithsonian and some live samples for aquarium’s. We had a successful day and picked up numerous things. Enjoy some of the highlights!

Things have been getting wild in the deep sea. Yesterday we conducted two ROV dives in Penchant Basin around 450-550 meters again and came across lots of soft coral, tube worms, and random fish out in the sand flats. Enjoy some of the highlight photos from yesterday!

Yesterday the science and ROV team conducted two ROV dives around 500 meters at Redfish Valley. As ROV pilots we consider these beach dives, being there was just soft sediment the entire time. In the afternoon we started making a long transit west to where we're diving today. Enjoy some of the standout highlights from our beach dive!!!

You never know what you're going to see deep in the ocean. Yesterday in addition to everything else we realized all the creatures at the bottom were eating salps, who would of thought? After some googling, Salps are 95% water and a wide variety of marine animals eat them including sea birds, seals, and turtles!