Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Voyage of discovery launching
Among the goals: study underwater landslides and visit a sunken German U-boat.
Ever since hewas a kid, Dr. Robert Ballard has been into exploring the great outdoors.
A professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence and the president of Ocean Exploration Trust, Ballard went on to discover numerous shipwrecks, most notably the Titanic in 1985.
With his 211-foot exploration vessel Nautilus, Ballard and his Corps of Exploration have also discovered coral communities, underwater landslides and creatures living off a previously unknown cold methane seep on the only active volcano in the Caribbean that’s underwater.
Best of all, thanks to the help of Florida Panthers owner Vinnie Viola, Ballard has been able to share those discoveries as they occurred with scientists, teachers and the public through thewebsite nautiluslive.org.
“I’m a kid that never grew up,” said Ballard, 71, whowas readying Nautilus to depart Port Everglades on Wednesday for a fourmonth expedition that will take the ship through the Straits of Florida, the Dry Tortugas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
“I loved turning over rocks and I loved sharing. I loved to run home screaming about what I just discovered.”
Among the goals of the upcoming expedition: study under water landslides, which can lead to tsunamis and earthquakes; examine impacts on corals and animals of the 2010 Gulf oil spill; and visit a sunken German U-boat and some ships it sank in the Gulf with film crews from NOVA and National Geographic.
Nautilus has two remotely operated vehicles, Argus and Hercules, with multiple cameras that document the ocean floor as deep as 13,000 feet. Hercules can take sediment and water samples and has claw-like manipulators operated by pilots Reuben Mills and Brennan Phillips that can collect specimens.
Everyone on the ship, which has a permanent crew of 17 and a rotating crew of 31 that includes scientists and students, can see what the pilots are seeing and make suggestions, as can scientists on land.
Whatever Nautilus finds will be seen in real-time on itswebsite.
“I’ve always been a sharer of what I find and that’s what we’re doing, sharing,” Ballard said.
Before he bought the Panthers, Viola bought Nautilus, a former East German research vessel, and let Ballard use it for his explorations in 2008 before giving it to him.
“Vinnie’s got a wonderful heart. He came out with us and learned about our outreach program,” Ballard said. “He said, ‘I would really like to have a major impact upon the children of this area.’ … We’re going to start taking out teachers and educators and students from the educational systems of Broward County every year now.”