CIOERT PARTNERSHIP WITH MONITOR NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY ON 2011 BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC PROGRAM
TARGETED AUV SURVEYS WITH HIGH RESOLUTION SONARS AND HYDROCARBON SENSORS:The Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology (CIOERT) is funded by NOAA’s office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) for exploration, research and technology development that supports studies of shelf frontiers and deep coral ecosystems. CIOERT collaborates with NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) to explore and characterize submerged cultural resources (SCR) using advanced technical diving and robotic vehicles. OER and the NMS Program are the only NOAA programs with the specific mission of exploring and documenting SCR.
The focus of CIOERT’s SCR project in Year 1 and 2 is to map SCR and conduct archaeological surveys of newly discovered resources within the Graveyard of the Atlantic off Cape Hatteras in partnership with Monitor NMS, and in the Thunder Bay NMS. Both Sanctuaries are now reviewing plans to expand their areas of responsibility to include these newly discovered resources. Year 2 missions include a cruise in June 2011 using SRI International’s Mobile-Inspection-Platform (MIP) AUV with high resolution mapping sonar to map newly discovered deep wrecks close to the Monitor NMS. One of these wrecks, the Empire Gem off Cape Hatteras, is known to be leaking gasoline and/or fuel oil. The AUV will carry a chemical sensor payload in order to detect and map the leaking fuel, helping to pinpoint the source and inform future efforts, if required, to mitigate impacts to the local ecosystem. Sensor data will be analyzed by the Ocean Visibility and Optics Lab at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (Florida Atlantic University).
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For more information on the Battle of the Atlantic Program and this mission, contact Andrew Shepard.