Deploying the OTZ Observation Network

Mission Overview

To close out the first year of the OTZ Project, this past March the the team had an appropriately audacious 10 days to mobilize a research expedition on the OceanX research vessel M/V Alucia off the coast of the Bahamas. Our efforts were already running in high gear, but somehow everyone took it to another level entirely, completing in less than two weeks what normally requires months to accomplish. It helped that WHOI has experienced personnel in our Marine Ops department and Shipboard Scientific Services Group, all of whom said, “Let’s make it happen.” The result was a 10-day expedition during which Joel Llopiz, Heidi Sosik, and several other OTZ team members made their first submersible dives to explore the twilight zone in-person for the first time. It also provided a critical opportunity to partner with Quartz Media to get the story out and to gather video footage to produce high-quality content for future engagement activities.