Ocean Discovery League recently launched a new training program for early career individuals in the Pacific Islands region to address head-on the inefficient, expensive, and inequitable deep sea exploration and research practices that continue to hinder our ability to explore the deep ocean at scale. In 2024, 12 students from the region joined the program.

Ocean Discovery League is working to develop a deep-diving, low-cost Deep Ocean Research & Imaging System (DORIS) to lower the financial and technical barriers to deep-sea exploration and research. This novel, customizable tool consists of interchangeable sensing and operational modules that can be configured to meet the mission of individual projects and user needs.

In 2024, Ocean Exploration Trust completed eight NOAA Ocean Exploration-sponsored multidisciplinary expeditions on E/V Nautilus in the Pacific Islands region, including seafloor mapping in the Central Pacific, multi-vehicle explorations in American Samoa, remotely operated vehicle explorations of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, and deployments of multiple robotic assets to study the physical oceanography around the Palauan Islands.

In August 2024, teachers in American Samoa participated a first-of-its kind professional development workshop to enhance local ocean education with support from NOAA Ocean Exploration, Ocean Exploration Trust, National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, and the American Samoa Department of Education.

In 2024, NOAA Ocean Exploration hosted 16 interns through its Explorer-in-Training program, including 12 who sailed on expeditions on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer focused on mapping deep waters of Hawaiʻi and Johnston Atoll in support of the Beyond the Blue campaign.

In June 2024, NOAA participated in the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture (FestPAC), the largest celebration of Indigenous Pacific Islanders in the world. The festival took place in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and more than 20 nations were represented. NOAA activities included hosting the “Ocean Forum” room, a curated space highlighting NOAA’s work in the Pacific that featured several Science on a Sphere presentations and participating in Waʻa (canoe) Community Day to celebrate traditional Hawaiian wa’a voyaging culture and activities.

NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners are working to log time-stamped observations (annotations) from myriad perspectives during and after maritime heritage dives, making video data more valuable, accessible, and usable than it has been in the past. Annotations are logged into web browser-based SeaTube providing tangible, guided experiences and enriches the underwater exploration and maritime heritage management and analysis experience.

In 2024, NOAA Ocean Exploration worked with partners to conduct a total of six expeditions on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer focused on mapping deep waters of Hawaiʻi and Johnston Atoll, resulting in the collection of data needed for further exploration and providing a baseline of data needed to manage regional marine protected areas, including Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

NOAA Ocean Exploration’s photogrammetry collection includes models of seafloor sites and features visited and modeled by NOAA and partners for use by scientists, researchers, and others interested in detailed representations of exploration targets. Many of the available models are from maritime heritage dives in the Pacific region. The collection highlights the importance of photogrammetry as a prioritized dataset during maritime heritage dives.

On September 10-11, the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center and NOAA Ocean Exploration hosted Pilina Kai Lipo: Connecting to the Deep Ocean, an ocean-themed event at the center designed to engage the local community with the deep ocean by highlighting efforts to further our understanding of the waters of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.