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Ocean Networks Canada: What It's Really Like to Work in the Deep Sea · How To Protect The Ocean

• 1:00:00
  Welcome back to another episode of the
• 1:00:01
  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 1:00:02
  I'm your host Andrew Lewin and today
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  we're diving into
• 1:00:05
  what's really like to work in
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  the ocean as part of our monthly series
• 1:00:08
  called Surfacing Secrets.
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  Explore the ocean, know the planet.
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  Have you ever wondered what it takes to
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  explore the deep sea?
• 1:00:15
  I operate cutting edge underwater
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  technology or spend your
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  days surrounded by one of the
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  most planet's mysterious environments.
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  In this episode, I'm joined by Meg
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  Paulson and Dirk Lorsau
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  from Oceans Network, Canada
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  and Josh Tenereco from Canpack who share
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  their first-hand
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  experiences working in the
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  field.
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  We talk about everything from excitement
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  of deploying ROVs
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  thousands of meters below
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  the surface to the challenges of working
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  under intense pressure,
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  both literal and figurative.
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  If you ever dreamed of a career in marine
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  exploration engineering
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  or you want to understand
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  what life is like for those protecting
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  and studying our oceans,
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  this is the episode for
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  you.
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  Let's start the show.
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  And then on the flip side, there's days
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  where you're like, I
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  can't believe I'm getting
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  paid to do this right now.
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  This is absolutely incredible.
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  Hey everybody, welcome back to another
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  exciting episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host Andrew Lewin and this is
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  the podcast where you
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  find out what's happening
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  with the ocean, how you can speak up for
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  the ocean and what you
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  can do to live for a better
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  ocean by taking action.
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  On today's episode, we are going to be
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  talking about the deep sea.
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  We're going to be talking about the work
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  done by people and
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  partners of Ocean Networks Canada
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  and we're going to be going beyond the
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  surface to talk about
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  what it really means to work
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  in the ocean, especially in the
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  mysterious and
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  challenging world of the deep sea.
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  Our guests, Megan, Josh and Dirk are
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  ocean professionals who
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  spend their days deploying
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  and maintaining remotely operated
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  vehicles, troubleshooting
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  problems miles offshore and
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  gathering crucial data for ocean science.
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  We'll hear what it feels like to operate
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  equipment under extreme
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  pressure, the surprises
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  you can encounter when exploring the
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  ocean floor and the teamwork it takes to
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  make every mission a success.
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  We're also going to dig into the personal
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  side of life at sea, how they balance
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  long stints away from family,
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  the camaraderie that develops among crew
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  members and the passion that keeps them
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  coming back to this
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  vital and demanding work.
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  This conversation is a rare behind the
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  scenes look at careers that keep our
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  understanding of the ocean moving forward
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  and it's a chance to appreciate
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  the people who dedicate their lives to
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  studying and protecting ocean ecosystems.
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  So stay tuned, get ready for the stories
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  from the deep and let's get to know the
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  planet on Surfacing Secrets.
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  Here's the interview with Megan, Josh and
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  Dirk. Enjoy the interview
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  and I will talk to you after.
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  Megan, Josh and Dirk, welcome to the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Are you ready to talk about what it's
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  like to work in the ocean?
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  Let's do it.
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  Yeah, all right. This is gonna be a lot
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  of fun. I'm super excited because it's
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  not often actually, I don't think we've
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  ever really had a full conversation of
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  what it's like to work in the ocean,
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  especially the deep sea.
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  We have three people here who work in a
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  partnership with Josh and for Oceans
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  Network Canada with with Megan and Dirk
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  and we're going to find out exactly what
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  they do with those programs.
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  But we are here to talk about what it's
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  like to work in the ocean
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  because that is what they do.
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  And we're going to talk about sort of the
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  challenges, the fun that
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  you get to have out there.
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  But also just like what it's like to work
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  like in such a deep pressured system and
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  all the materials I have to go in, ROVs.
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  There's going to be a lot of fun chats
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  coming on this podcast on this episode.
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  So I am super excited to do that. Before
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  we get into all that, though, why don't
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  we hear from all of you
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  who you are and what you do?
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  We'll start with Megan.
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  Thanks, Andrew. My name is Megan Paulson.
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  And my role here at Ocean Networks Canada
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  is executive director of
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  observatory operations.
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  And what that means is basically all
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  operations at ONC as it relates to our
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  observatories is under my purview.
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  And that includes physical operations and
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  digital operations because what we do, we
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  don't just put stuff in the ocean, but we
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  collect data from everything that we're
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  putting in the ocean.
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  And we make that data available to
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  basically anyone with the Internet
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  connection for free.
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  That's amazing. I love that. I love it. I
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  can't wait to dive deep into
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  that. Let's go. Josh, next.
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  Yeah, I'm Josh Tederenko. I'm director of
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  ROV operations at
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  Campact Marine Services.
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  We're a company on the west coast of
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  Canada that provides any subsea services
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  down to six thousand meters
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  with our deep sea rated ROV.
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  My job in the company is to take care of
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  and run and operate, mobilize, upgrade
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  all of our underwater robotic systems.
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  OK, that's that's interesting. That's
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  like I feel like that is a continually
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  growing field to to look at robotics and
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  especially when it comes to underwater
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  underwater work, right?
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  Yeah, absolutely. Yes. I mean, just like
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  any tech industry, you're always sort of
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  chasing the newest latest technology and
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  trying to be at the forefront.
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  And a lot of what our partnership is with
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  Ocean Networks Canada is not just to
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  provide the services, but also to make
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  sure that we we stay on top of the latest
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  and greatest technology for the industry.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely. Looking forward
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  to diving into that as well. And Dirk,
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  how about us know who
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  you are and what you do.
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  OK, I'm Dirk Russo. I'm the director of
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  Observatory Physical Operations for Ocean
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  Networks Canada. And my team is made up
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  of engineers and technicians. And we work
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  together to integrate new physical
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  infrastructure onto the network, whether
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  that's new sensors, new equipment or new
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  technology, stuff like that.
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  Nice. Very nice. Very nice. This is going
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  to be a lot of fun to be able to talk to
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  you. I want to just start right from the
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  beginning before all of you got to where
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  you were. And Megan,
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  we'll start with you.
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  You know, what was it like for you to get
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  into the ocean? Like, what made you want
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  to work in the ocean?
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  Great question. So I grew up on the east
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  coast of Canada. So very ocean friendly
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  place. But it wasn't really until I was
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  an undergraduate student in engineering
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  in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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  And I applied for a position for the
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  Geological Survey of Canada and
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  fortunately got the position at the in
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  Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and had the
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  opportunity through my supervisor to do
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  an offshore expedition where we were
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  collecting sediment cores and absolutely
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  fell in love with it.
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  Like I was absolutely hooked to the point
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  where when I graduated my undergrad, my
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  main criteria for getting a job was I
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  needed to work offshore.
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  That's amazing. Quick question here. You
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  know, when you work and we'll get into it
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  a little bit more, but when you work at
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  sea, there's a lot of sacrifices you have
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  to make. It's not a regular what we, you
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  know, quote unquote, what people would
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  consider regular like land job where you
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  get to go home after your
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  your nine to five year at sea.
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  What was so appealing for
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  you about working at sea?
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  Part of it was the adventure of it. I
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  mean, you really you get to go to places
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  that very few people go to. Part of it
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  was the food. I like being fed. The food
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  is usually amazing. I like it when people
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  make food for me. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And part of it was really getting
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  to know the people on board. It's such a
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  different environment than a regular
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  office environment. And you're meeting
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  people and you're working really closely
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  with people that you wouldn't normally do
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  so from every walk of life, from every
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  type of education level.
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  And it's really it's really a fascinating
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  sort of microcosm environment and you're
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  kind of stuck together. So whatever comes
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  up, you have to figure it out. You have
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  to work it out and you have to move
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  forward for the very, you know, focused
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  reason that you're out there for whatever
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  your mission is at the time.
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  Yeah, for sure. And I find too, like I've
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  had experience working at sea and I find
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  like when you have to work through those
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  problems, you're able to get it. It's a
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  complete confidence boost when you're
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  able to figure it out. However long it
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  takes, you know, you never know when an
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  instrument is not going to work or or
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  something is not going to work. And
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  you're if you're able to get it going,
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  that's probably one of the best feelings.
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  Oh, it's yeah, it's it's such a rush, you
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  know, because sometimes things break.
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  Sometimes you get really creative.
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  And when you're able to work through as a
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  team and troubleshoot and put something
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  together to solve whatever the issue was
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  and it works, you turn it on, it works or
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  whatever it is, it's, oh,
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  it's an it's infectious.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely. And speaking of,
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  you know, fixing things that see Josh,
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  you know, you're you're into robotics.
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  You've come across that quite a bit. But
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  what what got you into this company that
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  you're working at? Like, what were you
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  doing beforehand? Was this always the
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  plan when you were younger?
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  Like, how did this all come to be?
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  Yeah, sure. Well, first of all, no, I've
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  never had to fix a robot offshore.
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  They're always they
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  always work perfectly.
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  I never ever experienced that once. No,
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  we're fixing them all the time. So I was
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  fortunate fortunate enough to grow up
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  with a dad that he was in the field for
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  his his career. So I kind of grew up
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  around it. And, you know, we spent time
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  on the ocean, you know, privately. And
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  then I got to see some pretty
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  cool ships when I was young.
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  I always wanted to be a pilot, though, an
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  aircraft pilot. But eventually, I was an
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  electrician after high school, I did a
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  trade. And then really why I went into
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  subsea robotics is the challenge. Subsea
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  robotics is especially deep sea is one of
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  the most challenging
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  jobs, careers on the planet, in my
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  opinion, intellectually, just just the
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  problems that you have to solve offshore
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  and the teamwork needed to solve them
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  consistently, drew me into working
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  offshore. That's really the main the main
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  reason why I love it every day.
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  I love the food more than Megan. I love
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  getting a team together on the ship. And
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  just like we talked about, you have to
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  you all have to come together to solve
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  things, whether it's subsea or, you know,
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  fixing something on the surface, so you
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  can get back in the water.
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  But the real draw for me is that you are
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  always learning. You're always being
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  challenged, always something different,
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  especially working with Ocean Networks
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  Canada or in the science field because
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  you're always just
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  pushing, pushing to do new things.
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  It's not like more common or OB fields
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  and oil and gas and things. They've kind
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  of got everything figured out and they've
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  been doing it for a long time. But in the
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  fields that we work in,
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  it's actually a challenge.
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  You're always trying to solve an issue
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  with people that really, really want to
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  solve it with you. Yeah, that are really
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  interesting. Everybody's very motivated.
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  We all come together offshore. So that's
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  that's the main draw for me.
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  That's why I got into this.
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  I don't blame you. I don't blame you.
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  That sounds amazing.
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  Dirk, how about yourself?
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  When I growing up, I grew up in a kind of
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  a subtropical rainforest in South Africa
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  and at the age of six, I already had my
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  own horse and we would like ride our
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  horses in the game reserves
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  and stuff to my friend's house.
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  Like we were pretty wild kids, right? So
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  I've always had this sense of adventure.
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  And I think that just kind of came stuck
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  along when I was in university and got
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  opportunity to do a co-op
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  with Ocean Networks Canada.
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  You saw the same thing. It's like this is
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  you get to go all these places kind of
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  what Megan was saying, like we have got
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  observatories in the Arctic all along the
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  coast of BC. We got one of the east
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  coast. So it's a lot of really remote
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  travel. And that's what I that's what I
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  really liked. And then working here, I
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  kind of got into the offshore working on
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  the vessels and stuff. That's just part
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  of the job, right? So yeah.
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  And I guess one of the favorite things
• 1:12:24
  about working here is everyone kind of
• 1:12:27
  circle. I want to say circle the train,
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  but everyone kind of came together
• 1:12:30
  because they're equally passionate. So
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  the people you're working with are just
• 1:12:34
  as excited. And I think both Josh and
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  Megan already mentioned this, but you
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  kind of end up here because you want to
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  be here. It's not necessarily easy road
• 1:12:42
  to get here. So right coworkers, I guess.
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  Yeah, I think it's I think it's really
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  interesting to how you know, a lot of
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  people I'm a marine biologist and I think
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  a lot of people who try and get into this
• 1:12:54
  field who want to work on the ocean think
• 1:12:56
  they have to be a marine biologist. You
• 1:12:58
  are all scientists. You are all engineers
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  of one one way or another of worked in
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  that in that field. Did you ever picture
• 1:13:06
  yourself during our Josh, you might be a
• 1:13:08
  little different because your dad worked
• 1:13:09
  in this and this is something that you
• 1:13:11
  know was you can see what what you could
• 1:13:14
  what was one of the
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  potentials other than just the
• 1:13:16
  being a being a pilot. But did any of you
• 1:13:18
  think that this is what you were going to
• 1:13:21
  be doing dirt will start with you this
• 1:13:22
  time. Like, did you think that you will
• 1:13:24
  be working on the ocean as a your
• 1:13:25
  mechanical engineer, right? Mechanical
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  engineer. Yeah. Yeah. So do you ever
• 1:13:28
  think that that was one of the things
• 1:13:30
  you're going to be doing? No, not at all.
• 1:13:32
  Like I like it. Like I've always loved
• 1:13:34
  fishing and I like being on the ocean and
• 1:13:36
  stuff like that, but I never thought I'd
• 1:13:37
  work in the ocean. Initially, I was an
• 1:13:40
  aspiring geologist, my first track,
• 1:13:42
  trying to get a degree and
• 1:13:44
  that did not work out. So
• 1:13:46
  kind of went back square one did
• 1:13:48
  electrical apprenticeship or start that
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  and then went to you Vic from marine
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  biology kind of left that as well and
• 1:13:54
  then eventually did my engineering degree
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  and still ended up kind of where I in the
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  field work kind of thing. So long track
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  but yeah, yeah, love it. Love it. And
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  Josh, I know you kind of worked in that
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  that you saw what it was like, but did
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  you ever picture this is what you were
• 1:14:09
  going to be doing or like I know you said
• 1:14:10
  you want to be a pilot. Was this all
• 1:14:12
  actually what you do?
• 1:14:14
  Yeah, no, I didn't really consider this
• 1:14:16
  until my mid mid 20s to be honest. I knew
• 1:14:22
  it was a was an opportunity that I could
• 1:14:24
  probably take up. But I yeah. And then I
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  and then once I got into it, I was
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  basically thrown right in. I took the job
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  and then we had our first cruise for onc
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  in 2012 or 13. I can't remember.
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  And we just we were kind of as a short
• 1:14:43
  notice thing and we got thrown on board
• 1:14:44
  ship and I just never turned back. So no,
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  but no, I didn't I didn't really think
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  that I would work offshore. I love
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  spending time in the ocean either way,
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  but yeah, I didn't expect this. No,
• 1:15:00
  absolutely. Absolutely. And
• 1:15:01
  Megan, how about yourself?
• 1:15:03
  Well, it's funny that you said most
• 1:15:04
  people think you need to be a marine
• 1:15:06
  biologist to get into this field and
• 1:15:08
  these guys can attest. I'm a terrible
• 1:15:10
  biologist. I'm terrible at identifying
• 1:15:15
  anything. I call them all critters and
• 1:15:18
  all. But yeah, no, I when I went to
• 1:15:24
  university, I started in science until I
• 1:15:28
  and I thought I was going to major in
• 1:15:30
  chemistry and until I hit organic chemistry.
• 1:15:31
  And I thought no, thank you. And then I
• 1:15:37
  switched to engineering and ended up
• 1:15:39
  going into civil engineering. So again,
• 1:15:42
  you don't think a civil engineering and
• 1:15:44
  working on the ocean at all. But it was
• 1:15:46
  really the co-op work term where I got
• 1:15:49
  the opportunity to do ocean work where
• 1:15:52
  like that was it. I was done. So this is
• 1:15:55
  it. I love the field work. I love the
• 1:15:58
  environment. I love the working with the
• 1:16:00
  technology. I love the field work.
• 1:16:00
  I love the technology. I love just the
• 1:16:02
  fact that you have to be self-reliant.
• 1:16:06
  You know, you can't just when you're out
• 1:16:08
  there, you can't just swing by the ocean
• 1:16:11
  hardware store to pick up anything you
• 1:16:12
  forgot. A lot of a lot of people in our
• 1:16:18
  mind, at least they say, you know, you
• 1:16:21
  fall into it. You get a
• 1:16:23
  that's exactly right. Yeah.
• 1:16:26
  So, you know, robotics or background in
• 1:16:27
  marine biology, some there's so many
• 1:16:29
  different backgrounds that you can
• 1:16:31
  actually get into engineering. It's not
• 1:16:33
  just limited to to marine biology or what
• 1:16:36
  people might think. And then you kind of
• 1:16:39
  get an opportunity at some point. And
• 1:16:41
  then a lot of people fall in love with
• 1:16:42
  it, just like we all have. But it's yeah,
• 1:16:45
  we say it all the time. How did you get
• 1:16:47
  into this? I kind of just fell into it.
• 1:16:50
  I'm 100% right, Josh. Yeah, I certainly
• 1:16:53
  did. Yeah. Well, and maybe I wanted to
• 1:16:56
  just kind of ask a question to you,
• 1:16:58
  obviously, you know, being being the
• 1:17:01
  woman on the podcast today working in a
• 1:17:03
  field at sea is not something that I
• 1:17:06
  think we see it a little bit. We see it
• 1:17:07
  more today than we did, you know, a few a
• 1:17:10
  few decades ago. But it's not something
• 1:17:12
  that is advertised or not a lot of young
• 1:17:15
  girls are going to say, I'm going to work
• 1:17:16
  at sea back, you know, back when I grew
• 1:17:18
  up in the 80s and 90s.
• 1:17:19
  Although I did see a lot of women in my
• 1:17:22
  in my class, like in my marine biology
• 1:17:24
  class anyway. And there's more and more
• 1:17:26
  engineers coming through that are that
• 1:17:28
  are females. What was it? What have you
• 1:17:31
  found the difference when you first
• 1:17:32
  started to now? Like, what's been that?
• 1:17:35
  Do you find there's do you find that
• 1:17:36
  you're seeing more women working in the
• 1:17:38
  field? And when you first started, like,
• 1:17:40
  how was that for you?
• 1:17:41
  Yeah, definitely. So, and it kind of
• 1:17:46
  depends on the industry that you're
• 1:17:48
  working in, I find working in science,
• 1:17:50
  there tends to be more, more women, and
• 1:17:56
  more women working in the field, which is
• 1:17:58
  kind of a friendlier environment. I
• 1:18:01
  didn't always work in science, and it
• 1:18:02
  wasn't always quite as friendly. But
• 1:18:05
  certainly the the number of women who are
• 1:18:10
  going into the field has increased.
• 1:18:11
  And I think the overall sort of
• 1:18:14
  expectations and acceptance of women
• 1:18:16
  being in the field has really grown a
• 1:18:19
  lot. You know, it used to be, you know,
• 1:18:22
  at times like, I wouldn't be allowed to
• 1:18:25
  go out on a ship because there wasn't
• 1:18:27
  accommodations. Yeah.
• 1:18:29
  And these guys know very well that at
• 1:18:32
  Ocean Networks Canada, that's not an
• 1:18:34
  acceptable answer now. Right.
• 1:18:37
  And so we, we have to make sure that the
• 1:18:41
  accommodations are there. And I think
• 1:18:42
  having like, you know, a generation or a
• 1:18:46
  couple of generations of women who've,
• 1:18:48
  who've kind of gone through it, and are
• 1:18:51
  in leadership positions now saying like,
• 1:18:54
  No, that's not acceptable, we have to do
• 1:18:56
  better is really push things forward.
• 1:19:00
  And so we were off shore just this past
• 1:19:02
  June, and there were a number of young
• 1:19:04
  women, or younger than me, I should say,
• 1:19:09
  women on on board, where it was their
• 1:19:11
  first experience at sea, and it was such
• 1:19:14
  a open and friendly and supportive
• 1:19:17
  environment that was different
• 1:19:20
  than when I started for sure.
• 1:19:22
  And so, you know, the other senior women
• 1:19:24
  on board, we just kind of looked at each
• 1:19:26
  other and and said to each other like,
• 1:19:28
  wow, can you imagine if this is what your
• 1:19:31
  first experience at sea was like, it was
• 1:19:34
  really it was it was so great to see.
• 1:19:38
  Obviously, having such a positive
• 1:19:40
  experience for for young scientists, any
• 1:19:42
  young scientists come out, we'll want
• 1:19:44
  them to come back out, that'll make it
• 1:19:45
  all. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that was so
• 1:19:47
  much fun. I want to go back out and do it
• 1:19:49
  again. Let's be honest, it's not easy to
• 1:19:51
  work in the ocean. We say it's fun. We
• 1:19:52
  say it's but it's there's, there's some
• 1:19:54
  tough days, you know, when you when the
• 1:19:55
  seas are up and it's not always calm and
• 1:19:59
  it's and it's not always sunny. And so it
• 1:20:01
  can be quite difficult sometimes. So it's
• 1:20:04
  always good to have a
• 1:20:06
  great, a great crew.
• 1:20:07
  And as we start to, you know, I'm sorry,
• 1:20:09
  the questions are going to start to get
• 1:20:10
  into the form of like, what types of jobs
• 1:20:13
  are you guys doing when you're out there
• 1:20:14
  that having that crew dynamic where you
• 1:20:17
  can everybody gets along, you know, and
• 1:20:19
  works together and supportive together.
• 1:20:21
  Obviously, the three of you know, each
• 1:20:22
  other quite well. You've been at sea
• 1:20:23
  quite a number of times.
• 1:20:25
  You know, Dirk, what makes a crew like
• 1:20:27
  what what makes it like in terms of the
• 1:20:29
  people work so well together? Like, what
• 1:20:33
  does it take? Especially at sea?
• 1:20:35
  Well, there's very, it's kind of funny,
• 1:20:39
  you pick a crew, you pick your crew list
• 1:20:41
  very specific to what the jobs are. And
• 1:20:43
  there's kind of these kind of discrete
• 1:20:44
  jobs. And then so you've got the kind of
• 1:20:47
  specialists for each one. And then you
• 1:20:49
  also have these like, I don't know, jack
• 1:20:52
  of all trade, but Swiss Army knives of
• 1:20:54
  people that you can bring along as well.
• 1:20:55
  So that kind of kind of cover the spread.
• 1:20:57
  So we've got a few of those as well.
• 1:20:58
  So we'll have like a dedicated person
• 1:21:01
  from science or data that would focus a
• 1:21:03
  lot of their efforts on that field
• 1:21:04
  because it takes like their full
• 1:21:05
  attention. But then there's also the back
• 1:21:08
  deck work and leading dives and that kind
• 1:21:10
  of thing that you really need to shuffle
• 1:21:12
  the expertise around.
• 1:21:12
  But I think what gets you through the day
• 1:21:16
  or because some of these cruises are
• 1:21:17
  long, they're like 22 days of 12 hours on
• 1:21:20
  every day is again, is the people that
• 1:21:22
  you go with. I've cruised with people
• 1:21:25
  where the, you know, the camaraderie
• 1:21:28
  wasn't necessarily there. And then
• 1:21:29
  cruises with when it is there. It just
• 1:21:31
  it's a lot of jokes. It's a lot of
• 1:21:33
  stories. It's just kind of, I don't know.
• 1:21:35
  It's the people that you go with, I think
• 1:21:37
  it kind of form this little family on
• 1:21:38
  each cruise. And by the end, you're like,
• 1:21:39
  Oh, what I do now, because everyone goes there separately.
• 1:21:42
  Right. Right. So yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 1:21:45
  Yeah. Dirk, Dirk calls me at night after
• 1:21:47
  cruises for the like the first week. He's
• 1:21:50
  he's really gets really lonely. He misses
• 1:21:51
  me a lot. He doesn't ask. He calls me.
• 1:21:56
  No, I don't know. Is that enough with
• 1:21:58
  Dirk? That's enough.
• 1:22:00
  You've got all the voicemails.
• 1:22:02
  Voice mail full voice. Just check it in.
• 1:22:07
  Speaking of which, you know, you talk
• 1:22:09
  about missing each other after how long
• 1:22:11
  are these trips? I know they vary, but
• 1:22:13
  what's the average length of a trip at
• 1:22:15
  sea when you're going out for and I don't
• 1:22:18
  even know if this is what you call it.
• 1:22:20
  But like regular maintenance. Is that
• 1:22:21
  what these trips are usually for is
• 1:22:23
  regular mates making sure that everything
• 1:22:25
  is working there, making it. If you have
• 1:22:27
  to switch out some instrumentation things
• 1:22:29
  like how long are those
• 1:22:30
  typically those trips?
• 1:22:31
  And we got Megan, you can show sure.
• 1:22:35
  Sure. So, um, sorry, for Ocean Networks
• 1:22:38
  Canada, we typically have at least two
• 1:22:39
  regular maintenance trips per year. One
• 1:22:42
  is really focused more on inshore. And
• 1:22:43
  one is focused more on offshore. The
• 1:22:45
  inshore one is typically a week a little
• 1:22:48
  bit more than a week. The offshore one is
• 1:22:51
  typically two to three weeks long. Okay.
• 1:22:53
  And when we say two to three weeks, you
• 1:22:55
  know, usually it's people are working 12
• 1:22:58
  hour shifts. Yeah. Seven days a week. Like we don't have a lot of time to do that.
• 1:23:02
  It doesn't matter if it's a holiday. We
• 1:23:03
  don't get weekends. It's it's a grind.
• 1:23:06
  Yeah. Yeah. And you're and when we say 12
• 1:23:08
  hour shifts, like you're on your shift
• 1:23:10
  for 12 hours. But you know, typically
• 1:23:13
  you're up, you're doing some prep work,
• 1:23:15
  you're doing some post shift work as
• 1:23:17
  well. So it's it's intense for sure.
• 1:23:20
  Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's also it's like you
• 1:23:22
  want to make sure that, you know, when
• 1:23:24
  you're out there, everything works. And
• 1:23:26
  we've talked about this already. If
• 1:23:27
  something doesn't work, you have to be on
• 1:23:29
  it to make it work as fast as you can,
• 1:23:31
  because you only have a
• 1:23:31
  certain amount of time out at sea anyway.
• 1:23:34
  And if you're only having one or two
• 1:23:35
  trips, then it can be really difficult.
• 1:23:37
  You don't want to miss out on something
• 1:23:38
  or you don't have to go back out for one
• 1:23:41
  specific thing. If you couldn't get it
• 1:23:42
  done in the first trip, but I kind of got
• 1:23:45
  ahead of myself in terms of what goes
• 1:23:47
  into the planning of these trips. Like
• 1:23:49
  how, like how far into planning do you
• 1:23:54
  guys get? How many like that take months
• 1:23:56
  to get things done? You know, what is it?
• 1:24:00
  What goes into that? And then you know, you're going to have to go back to the
• 1:24:01
  next one. And I guess we'll we can talk
• 1:24:03
  to who wants to take that one. It'll take
• 1:24:04
  Megan. Do you want to talk to Josh?
• 1:24:07
  Sorry, I can talk to, you know, speak to
• 1:24:09
  the ROV planning. Yeah. So well, we I
• 1:24:14
  like to consider the the cruises almost
• 1:24:16
  they're almost like a movie production in
• 1:24:18
  that there is a ton of prep and planning
• 1:24:20
  that takes place. And then it all has to
• 1:24:22
  get done in a short window. Everybody
• 1:24:25
  works 24 seven. And then you're kind of
• 1:24:28
  done and you wrap it up. And it's it's so
• 1:24:31
  planning is in my opinion, it's the most
• 1:24:35
  important part of any cruise because you
• 1:24:38
  don't plan it, right? Obviously you go
• 1:24:39
  out and you waste all this time and
• 1:24:41
  money. So from the ROV side of things, we
• 1:24:45
  like to meet with whoever we're working
• 1:24:49
  with, Ocean Air, which is Canada a couple
• 1:24:51
  months before a job, make sure that every
• 1:24:54
  couple weeks after that and then closer
• 1:24:56
  together to make sure we have
• 1:24:59
  deck plans for the ship all.
• 1:25:01
  All worked out all of our operations that
• 1:25:05
  we need special equipment for we have the
• 1:25:07
  equipment, you know, either rented or
• 1:25:10
  purchased and on the way and installed.
• 1:25:12
  And so, you know, there's at least on our
• 1:25:17
  end, there's there's one to two months of
• 1:25:19
  prep work, depending on the specific
• 1:25:21
  exhibition, I think, you know, Megan, you
• 1:25:24
  guys, you guys have a bit more probably.
• 1:25:27
  Yeah, so so we we start months and months
• 1:25:29
  in advance and really the planning starts
• 1:25:33
  with what's broken and figuring out
• 1:25:38
  what's broken and what needs to be
• 1:25:39
  replaced and what needs maintenance or
• 1:25:41
  like where are we expanding and and from
• 1:25:44
  there and and we get, you know, it's it's
• 1:25:46
  a real team effort. So all the teams at
• 1:25:49
  Ocean Networks Canada and some of our
• 1:25:51
  stakeholders and and science partners
• 1:25:56
  get involved and make requests. So it
• 1:25:59
  starts with that. And from there, we're
• 1:26:02
  procuring instruments, testing them,
• 1:26:05
  validating them, making sure that the
• 1:26:07
  data quality is right, building them up.
• 1:26:10
  Sometimes they have to be built onto
• 1:26:12
  platforms. Sometimes the platform needs
• 1:26:13
  to be designed first.
• 1:26:15
  So so there's a lot of that, that prep
• 1:26:18
  work that goes into it. And then, you
• 1:26:22
  know, so that's sort of on the instrument
• 1:26:24
  side. And like, what are we going to do?
• 1:26:25
  And sort of based on what our plan is,
• 1:26:29
  we, we, we have to procure sometimes a
• 1:26:32
  ship, sometimes a ship and an ROV.
• 1:26:35
  And so, you know, we have to know what
• 1:26:36
  our requirements are for those ships and
• 1:26:38
  ROVs based on the work
• 1:26:40
  that we're trying to get done.
• 1:26:42
  We have to submit our permits and make
• 1:26:46
  sure that all of that is above board. And
• 1:26:48
  then and then as we're getting a little
• 1:26:50
  bit closer, as Josh mentioned, we work
• 1:26:52
  directly with the ROV provider to really
• 1:26:55
  get into the nuts and bolts of like
• 1:26:58
  integrating sensors or specialized
• 1:27:02
  equipment into the ROV for every
• 1:27:06
  for every dive that we do. So every time
• 1:27:07
  we go in the water with the ROV, we call
• 1:27:09
  it a dive at a particular site, we have
• 1:27:12
  very detailed dive plans written. They're
• 1:27:15
  usually written in advance, but they're
• 1:27:17
  usually tweaked like the day before a
• 1:27:20
  dive with input from the ROV pilots and
• 1:27:23
  and the people on board. And yeah, so
• 1:27:27
  there's there's a lot that goes into it.
• 1:27:28
  I would imagine too, like it's constantly
• 1:27:31
  changing because based on weather would
• 1:27:33
  would be pretty significant in terms of
• 1:27:35
  how that can change your plans quite
• 1:27:36
  quickly, whether you even go out or
• 1:27:38
  whether you even deploy an ROV or that
• 1:27:41
  type of work, right?
• 1:27:43
  Yeah, we're fortunate where we have a
• 1:27:44
  number of different sites that we can go
• 1:27:47
  to and and typically most of our sites
• 1:27:49
  are part of our expedition plan. But we
• 1:27:53
  are all three of us are glued to windy.
• 1:27:56
  Pretty much all the time looking at the
• 1:27:59
  forecast looking at at, you know, the
• 1:28:01
  wave hides the wind at each of our
• 1:28:04
  locations. And, you know, looking a few
• 1:28:07
  days in advance of like, okay, well, what
• 1:28:08
  makes the most sense? And does it make
• 1:28:10
  sense to run away from the weather here
• 1:28:13
  to go somewhere else?
• 1:28:14
  You know, to get a good weather window or
• 1:28:17
  is it going to turn there just as we
• 1:28:19
  arrive, you know, like all all those real
• 1:28:21
  time decisions and then we work we're we
• 1:28:24
  work closely with the captains to
• 1:28:25
  obviously, of course, of course, and
• 1:28:27
  Megan's leaving out really the important
• 1:28:29
  part of the planning,
• 1:28:30
  especially on board.
• 1:28:31
  She brings along a very
• 1:28:33
  large white board every time.
• 1:28:36
  Yeah.
• 1:28:38
  She calls it her dream board. And she
• 1:28:42
  writes down all of the possibilities
• 1:28:44
  every day of what we could do based on
• 1:28:46
  weather and everything that's gone on.
• 1:28:48
  And then about 36 times a day, she goes
• 1:28:51
  to the dream board and
• 1:28:52
  changes what's on it.
• 1:28:56
  So our vision board, right? It's like
• 1:28:57
  when people plan like they do their
• 1:28:59
  vision board. This is your vision for
• 1:29:00
  for. Yeah. Yeah. I have it labeled on the
• 1:29:04
  top. Oh, and see dream board.
• 1:29:08
  I love it. I absolutely love it. Now,
• 1:29:11
  once you've done all the planning, now
• 1:29:13
  you're you're steaming up. Does O and C
• 1:29:15
  have their own ships or do
• 1:29:16
  you do you contract them out?
• 1:29:21
  Do you take that one? Yeah, Dirk, why
• 1:29:22
  don't you take that one? So we contract
• 1:29:24
  the ships. We and those could be, you
• 1:29:27
  know, job specific. So a lot of times
• 1:29:29
  there's a certain requirement for cranes
• 1:29:31
  or ship size or something like this.
• 1:29:33
  On our inshore expeditions, we could get
• 1:29:35
  away with some smaller vessels and
• 1:29:37
  offshore. Of course, we need the bigger
• 1:29:38
  vessels and that's a combination of a lot
• 1:29:42
  of times we use Coast Guard vessels.
• 1:29:43
  There's some partnership there. And then
• 1:29:45
  also we've used Josh's their company camp
• 1:29:49
  back. We used to their ship before
• 1:29:50
  there's a few different options that we
• 1:29:52
  can use. So it's a combination. So I'll
• 1:29:54
  contract it though. We do own our own
• 1:29:56
  little like aluminum
• 1:29:59
  little smaller work boat.
• 1:30:00
  And we do smaller operations with that
• 1:30:02
  where we do small coastal observatories,
• 1:30:04
  but not offshore. Now with that, will
• 1:30:07
  that little boat come on to some of the
• 1:30:09
  bigger boats to do some little experts? I
• 1:30:12
  know some research vessels do that. No,
• 1:30:14
  it does not. Yeah, makes sense.
• 1:30:16
  It's very, very, very, yeah, for the
• 1:30:20
  little boat. Yeah. Now, how long does it
• 1:30:21
  take like for the offshore sites?
• 1:30:23
  Obviously, the inshore sites probably
• 1:30:24
  doesn't take as long, but for the
• 1:30:25
  offshore sites to say your furthest site
• 1:30:28
  that you would go, how long would that
• 1:30:30
  take to get there, Dirk?
• 1:30:32
  It takes about when you leave the dock
• 1:30:34
  here at IS, it takes about 27 hours of
• 1:30:37
  steaming to get there. Okay. So yeah, it
• 1:30:40
  takes quite a while to get there. Yeah.
• 1:30:41
  To our furthest sites. So that's our
• 1:30:44
  diverse site. But when we're doing our
• 1:30:47
  planning, we try and maximize our
• 1:30:50
  daylight hours and our dive windows to
• 1:30:53
  get to a site so that we're, yeah.
• 1:30:57
  So it's difficult, like when we plan our
• 1:30:59
  cruise in advance, we have an itinerary
• 1:31:00
  for okay, we're planning on leaving at
• 1:31:02
  one RV, are you going to be ready at one
• 1:31:04
  o'clock so we can leave so you can be,
• 1:31:06
  you know, Barkley Canyon at eight in the
• 1:31:08
  morning for first dive.
• 1:31:09
  And then you start creeping past one
• 1:31:11
  pass. Okay, so no point rushing to
• 1:31:13
  Barkley Canyon. Let's go to Cascadia. No
• 1:31:15
  point rushing that let's go to Endeavor
• 1:31:17
  because you might want to
• 1:31:17
  minimize those days for diving.
• 1:31:20
  Yeah, yeah. And like, there's a seems to
• 1:31:24
  be a lot of logistics in here. Have any
• 1:31:27
  of you gone through like logistics
• 1:31:29
  training because I don't know if that's
• 1:31:31
  necessarily taught in university when you
• 1:31:33
  go to university. Is this something you
• 1:31:34
  learn as you do more and more trips like
• 1:31:37
  you just kind of learn on the go? Josh,
• 1:31:39
  you could talk about this because
• 1:31:40
  I learned to hand it
• 1:31:42
  off to somebody else.
• 1:31:46
  Yeah, it just seems like you have to
• 1:31:48
  anticipate a lot you have to like an
• 1:31:51
  experience obviously matters
• 1:31:52
  right when you come into this.
• 1:31:54
  Absolutely. I mean, my, I always tell
• 1:31:57
  people, you know, my job specifically as
• 1:32:01
  the director of operations is really to
• 1:32:03
  just try and think of everything that we
• 1:32:05
  need, write it down and get get people to
• 1:32:08
  either do it or get
• 1:32:09
  it or have it shipped.
• 1:32:12
  You know, just like any company, we have
• 1:32:13
  logistics personnel and things like that.
• 1:32:17
  So, so there is a ton always to think
• 1:32:20
  about, which is why we meet so often with
• 1:32:22
  clients and ocean networks, Canada.
• 1:32:26
  Yeah, but no trading. Absolutely. And you
• 1:32:30
  can tell that sometimes.
• 1:32:33
  For sure. Yeah, I can imagine. I think
• 1:32:36
  you always have to be patient in a way of
• 1:32:40
  like not everything goes right when
• 1:32:42
  you're at sea, right? A lot of things can
• 1:32:44
  go, you know, not necessarily wrong, but
• 1:32:47
  divert because of weather or something
• 1:32:49
  that you realize when you get there.
• 1:32:51
  I think that's, you know, I think that's
• 1:32:54
  that's that's what it really happens. And
• 1:32:55
  when you when you get that challenge, you
• 1:32:57
  kind of work through it right and as a
• 1:32:59
  team and you talk about maybe a time
• 1:33:01
  making that you've you've come to a site
• 1:33:03
  and things didn't necessarily go as
• 1:33:06
  planned right off right off the bat, like
• 1:33:07
  the weather kind of shift like what
• 1:33:09
  happens when that when like weather
• 1:33:11
  shifts as you get to a site, is it more
• 1:33:13
  of a kind of weight or do you just go to
• 1:33:15
  the next thing that you can do?
• 1:33:17
  Yeah, it really depends on the
• 1:33:19
  conditions. So we've definitely, you
• 1:33:23
  know, looked at the weather window and we
• 1:33:25
  get on site and the weather looks okay.
• 1:33:27
  And we started dive say, yeah, and we get
• 1:33:31
  partway through the dive and the
• 1:33:32
  weather's deteriorating and with a lot of
• 1:33:35
  input from the ROV team and from the
• 1:33:37
  ship's captain, you know, we say, okay,
• 1:33:40
  we have to cut this dive short, like we
• 1:33:42
  have to recover right away,
• 1:33:44
  you know, because ultimately,
• 1:33:45
  you know, when the ROV is being
• 1:33:48
  recovered, you know, it's it's a huge
• 1:33:51
  robot coming up on a crane and people are
• 1:33:54
  having to navigate it on deck and secure
• 1:33:57
  everything on deck. And we, you know, we
• 1:34:00
  have to do it in a safe way. Right. So
• 1:34:02
  whatever the operation
• 1:34:04
  is, we're not going to
• 1:34:06
  we're not going to risk unsafe
• 1:34:10
  operations. So if if the weather's
• 1:34:13
  deteriorating, if the captain makes a
• 1:34:16
  call, then, you know, the operation is
• 1:34:19
  done for the day and we recover the ROV.
• 1:34:21
  Yeah. And and then we look at the
• 1:34:24
  forecast. And, you know, maybe it's
• 1:34:27
  blowing through very quickly. And we sit
• 1:34:29
  and wait, which we do sometimes. Yeah,
• 1:34:31
  maybe it's going to be really bad in that location for the next
• 1:34:33
  three days. And then we look at our other
• 1:34:38
  locations on our a couple years ago, we a
• 1:34:45
  really big storm was coming through. And
• 1:34:48
  it was going to impact all of our sites.
• 1:34:50
  And we actually ran away from the storm
• 1:34:52
  and hunkered down for over a day off the
• 1:34:55
  coast of Oregon, because that was the
• 1:34:57
  only place that we wouldn't get pummeled.
• 1:34:59
  Right. So it happens. And so when we're doing our part, we're going to have to do a little bit of a
• 1:35:03
  planning, like we we oversubscribe
• 1:35:07
  ourselves. So we plan to to do more
• 1:35:10
  things than we could ever possibly get
• 1:35:12
  done. Because maybe the weather is going
• 1:35:16
  to be great the whole time. And we could
• 1:35:18
  get nearly all of it done. Typically, we
• 1:35:22
  were down for a little bit during the
• 1:35:25
  weather. Sometimes when the weather is
• 1:35:27
  too bad to dive for safety reasons with
• 1:35:30
  the ROV, depending on the vessel that we have, we can get it done.
• 1:35:33
  And so we have sometimes we can spend
• 1:35:34
  some time mapping. So using using a multi
• 1:35:38
  beam mapping system. Yeah, exactly. And
• 1:35:43
  so just kind of mapping the gaps and
• 1:35:46
  collecting data just to be somewhat
• 1:35:49
  useful while we're waiting for the
• 1:35:50
  weather to settle down.
• 1:35:52
  Yeah. Now, Josh, when you deployed the
• 1:35:55
  ROV, I've never been part of that. I've
• 1:35:58
  never had the pleasure of being a part of
• 1:35:59
  that kind of excursion. Is the ROV
• 1:36:02
  tethered to to the boat at all times?
• 1:36:04
  Like there's a cable that goes down that
• 1:36:06
  that that allows you to talk to the ROV
• 1:36:08
  in a way in a sense?
• 1:36:10
  Yes, yes. I mean, it's kind of the
• 1:36:13
  definition of an ROV remotely operated
• 1:36:15
  vehicle. They're always to be designated
• 1:36:19
  as an ROV. You're tethered to a ship or
• 1:36:22
  to a vessel or a dock if you want. So
• 1:36:26
  there are autonomous
• 1:36:28
  underwater vehicles, AUVs that are not.
• 1:36:30
  But they're used for a totally different
• 1:36:32
  purpose. And for for for Ocean Networks
• 1:36:34
  Canada, we need to obviously we need to
• 1:36:36
  be operating our manipulators and we need
• 1:36:38
  to see the live view of the camera. So we
• 1:36:41
  need the tether, which is almost 7000
• 1:36:44
  meters long on a giant winch that's on
• 1:36:47
  board and contain our power conductors
• 1:36:50
  and fiber optics to get the data up to
• 1:36:52
  the surface and down to the ROV.
• 1:36:54
  So yes, always tethered, which, you know,
• 1:36:59
  is is always it's the hardest thing to to
• 1:37:04
  manage for ROV pilots. If you can manage
• 1:37:06
  your tether through all that water when
• 1:37:10
  you're really deep, then you can you can
• 1:37:13
  work usually just fine.
• 1:37:16
  So that's it's a big part of ROV. The
• 1:37:19
  tether is flexible, though, right? It's
• 1:37:20
  just like it's cables. It's not like a
• 1:37:22
  metal. Is it a metal piece?
• 1:37:23
  Well, there's there's multiple types. So
• 1:37:27
  we have several ROVs and really the two
• 1:37:31
  main types are soft, heather and armored.
• 1:37:34
  So a soft tether would be wrapped in a
• 1:37:38
  rubber and be easily bendable.
• 1:37:42
  And the other thing is, you know, a lot
• 1:37:43
  of the work is better for certain
• 1:37:43
  applications, but Ocean Networks Canada
• 1:37:46
  requires through framelifts of our
• 1:37:50
  vehicle. So we use our vehicle to attach
• 1:37:53
  to scientific platforms subsea.
• 1:38:04
  And then we have an armored umbilical,
• 1:38:05
  which is very, very strong. We can pick
• 1:38:08
  up the ROV off the sea floor while we're
• 1:38:10
  latched into things that are thousands of
• 1:38:12
  pounds. And then we can bring them all
• 1:38:15
  the way up to the ship. So that's why we
• 1:38:18
  have an armored umbilical on our deep ROV
• 1:38:20
  so that we can use it as basically a
• 1:38:23
  really deep crane almost to deploy and
• 1:38:28
  everything should see for.
• 1:38:30
  Cool. So that's why, you know, all the
• 1:38:32
  currents that happen within the water
• 1:38:34
  column, however different they are, as
• 1:38:35
  you go down deeper, that that matters
• 1:38:38
  when it comes to these tethers and how
• 1:38:40
  the ROV is is operated. Let's talk about
• 1:38:43
  when you get I wanted to kind of hit on
• 1:38:45
  this this ROV when you guys are operating
• 1:38:47
  the ROV, you're in a little room, I
• 1:38:50
  assume, or a container depending on the
• 1:38:52
  ROV on the ship. And who's in the
• 1:38:55
  container when you do this? Obviously,
• 1:38:56
  Josh, you're probably in this operating
• 1:38:57
  it. Dirk, are you in it as well?
• 1:38:59
  Yeah, so normally for every ROV shift,
• 1:39:03
  there'd be a ONC dive lead. And that
• 1:39:05
  would be either myself. It's normally me
• 1:39:08
  or Megan or we have another person here
• 1:39:10
  and we kind of rotate shifts as well. And
• 1:39:13
  we'll just go through the dive plan and
• 1:39:14
  kind of pivot as as things aren't going
• 1:39:16
  to work as expected anyway. So yeah,
• 1:39:19
  there'd be a senior person
• 1:39:20
  there every time from one C.
• 1:39:21
  Okay, and then that's where like that
• 1:39:23
  person's like, okay, this is what we want
• 1:39:25
  to accomplish on the dive. Let's see if
• 1:39:26
  we can find what we need to find and
• 1:39:28
  where we're going. And then Josh, your,
• 1:39:29
  your focus is more of just operating the
• 1:39:32
  ROV, making sure it's in a safe spot. And
• 1:39:34
  then there are arms on these ROVs and you
• 1:39:37
  actually start to handle things.
• 1:39:39
  Yeah, can you talk can you talk about
• 1:39:42
  that? Because I still I don't know if my
• 1:39:43
  brain just doesn't fathom how difficult
• 1:39:46
  it must be to be able to operate these
• 1:39:48
  arms in like at depth. When you you know,
• 1:39:52
  it's clarity a problem sometimes I can
• 1:39:55
  you talk a little bit about what happens
• 1:39:57
  when you get to the point of where you
• 1:39:59
  want to go, and you have to start doing
• 1:40:00
  your your maintenance or whatever the
• 1:40:03
  purpose of that dive is.
• 1:40:04
  Sure, absolutely. Just, first of all, as
• 1:40:08
  far as God leads from ocean risk Canada,
• 1:40:10
  I have some that I like and some that I
• 1:40:12
  don't put that on the record. I'm not
• 1:40:13
  going to say who world boss over there.
• 1:40:19
  But yeah, okay, so visibility is always
• 1:40:23
  tough. Certain sites that ocean risk
• 1:40:25
  Canada picks make me want to just I, I
• 1:40:32
  get so angry sometimes
• 1:40:33
  Andrew, it's a good thing.
• 1:40:33
  Andrew, because when you when you can't
• 1:40:36
  see what's in front of you with the
• 1:40:37
  cameras that you're trying to do
• 1:40:39
  manipulations, it's obviously it's very
• 1:40:41
  difficult. But we've been doing that for
• 1:40:44
  many years. I joke around that it makes
• 1:40:47
  me it doesn't make me angry. It's just a
• 1:40:49
  more difficult situation. But the science
• 1:40:51
  needs to be conducted in these areas,
• 1:40:53
  specifically, because of certain effects
• 1:40:57
  that make their to turbidity. So, you
• 1:41:00
  know, so bad. So there's several
• 1:41:02
  instruments we can use.
• 1:41:02
  Multigree sonar's and acoustic cameras to
• 1:41:07
  to kind of see through it and employing
• 1:41:10
  modes and getting better and better at
• 1:41:12
  that over the years. And then as far as
• 1:41:15
  manipulations go, so we basically we have
• 1:41:19
  two, what we call seven functions
• 1:41:21
  spatially correspondent manipulators on
• 1:41:23
  the vehicle one on
• 1:41:24
  each side at the front.
• 1:41:24
  You know, each side at the front and
• 1:41:26
  spatially correspondent means that we
• 1:41:29
  have a miniature version of the arm
• 1:41:31
  inside the control van, we call it. And
• 1:41:36
  for each arm and a person sits there and
• 1:41:38
  when they move that controller in the arm
• 1:41:42
  will move exactly as
• 1:41:43
  the controllers move.
• 1:41:43
  Oh, okay.
• 1:41:46
  And they move the controller around the
• 1:41:48
  arm will follow and it's almost instant
• 1:41:51
  and we need to have that ability. They're
• 1:41:53
  very advanced, you know, expensive pieces
• 1:41:57
  of machinery and engineering. We need
• 1:42:00
  them to do the delicate science to do the
• 1:42:04
  operations that is
• 1:42:05
  required by Ocean Networks Canada.
• 1:42:06
  So it's, you know, it's a very, very fun
• 1:42:11
  part of the job, of course, but also,
• 1:42:13
  again, can be extremely stressful. If
• 1:42:17
  anybody watches, it takes about, I don't
• 1:42:21
  know, any floor from 10 to 100 times
• 1:42:23
  longer to do something with those arms
• 1:42:25
  than it would for you to do
• 1:42:26
  something with your own arm.
• 1:42:27
  Yeah.
• 1:42:28
  Online. So it's a, it can be tough.
• 1:42:32
  Well, and also you're in an environment
• 1:42:33
  that's very different. Obviously it's the
• 1:42:36
  deep sea in many of these cases. And
• 1:42:38
  there are there are critters as Megan
• 1:42:41
  likes to call them critters in the deep
• 1:42:43
  sea. Have you ever had, you know, can you
• 1:42:47
  talk about some of the experiences that
• 1:42:49
  you've had where a critter comes in is
• 1:42:51
  like just curious about what they see.
• 1:42:52
  They're probably like, what is this? What
• 1:42:54
  is this critter? Like, what is going on
• 1:42:56
  here? Do you get any, any kind of animals
• 1:42:58
  that come in and just kind of play around
• 1:43:00
  with the arms or try and touch the arms
• 1:43:01
  because they're curious.
• 1:43:03
  So mostly the arms, what will and be
• 1:43:05
  curious about those always octopus. Yeah.
• 1:43:08
  And it's always the coolest best thing
• 1:43:10
  that we encounter. We will go to plug
• 1:43:13
  something in for us, networks, Canada,
• 1:43:15
  and there will be an octopus hiding kind
• 1:43:17
  of using a platform and
• 1:43:18
  this for platform as it's den.
• 1:43:20
  And sometimes they'll be basically right
• 1:43:22
  in the way. And we don't want to, you
• 1:43:25
  know, scare or hurt these animals. So we
• 1:43:28
  have to sort of use the manipulator and
• 1:43:30
  try and they usually at that point, then
• 1:43:32
  they'll reach out and
• 1:43:33
  they'll, they'll grab onto you.
• 1:43:34
  And obviously it's not dangerous to the
• 1:43:37
  ROV in any way, but it's extremely
• 1:43:39
  interesting and really fun. I mean, I
• 1:43:43
  joke around with my friends that I'm out
• 1:43:44
  fighting off octopus all the time trying
• 1:43:46
  to get them out of our way.
• 1:43:48
  A lot of crabs too, Josh. A lot of crabs.
• 1:43:53
  I'm sort of like coming into the into the
• 1:43:56
  frame of the camera.
• 1:43:56
  Yeah, they want to very slowly. Yeah.
• 1:44:00
  Yeah. But they they they get their they
• 1:44:03
  see the arms. Yeah, they're brave.
• 1:44:05
  They're like, okay, let's go. Yeah. I
• 1:44:08
  don't know what I get
• 1:44:09
  myself into, but I'm ready. Yeah.
• 1:44:10
  Yeah. Well, I can I can oppose this all
• 1:44:12
  three of you. What's been the most
• 1:44:14
  interesting thing that's happened while
• 1:44:17
  deploying an ROV down at those depths
• 1:44:20
  while doing work down there? What's been
• 1:44:21
  the most interesting thing that's
• 1:44:23
  happened to it could be individually or
• 1:44:25
  is it as a team when
• 1:44:26
  you're when you're down there?
• 1:44:29
  I think I can start one of the.
• 1:44:32
  Oh, go ahead, Derek.
• 1:44:34
  Yeah. So one of the ones you don't expect
• 1:44:36
  as we have these instruments that are
• 1:44:37
  called fenthic and resist resistivity
• 1:44:40
  sensors bars is what they look like. You
• 1:44:42
  know, the tubes at once and you go to a
• 1:44:44
  hydrothermal vent like the black smoker
• 1:44:46
  spewing out the hydrothermal fluid and
• 1:44:49
  you put the wand inside inside there and
• 1:44:51
  it measures temperature and resistivity
• 1:44:54
  of the of the fluid.
• 1:44:54
  But then you come back a year or two
• 1:44:57
  later and the whole instrument is now
• 1:45:00
  part of the rock since the road is
• 1:45:02
  growing as it's being deposited. The
• 1:45:04
  rocks actually growing around it and then
• 1:45:06
  there's no way to get it out. It's now
• 1:45:07
  part of it. So there's been a situation
• 1:45:10
  where we can't actually remove it. It's
• 1:45:12
  been completely engulfed over the course
• 1:45:14
  of like a lot of times it's completely
• 1:45:17
  melted ruined. Yeah. Yeah. Not working.
• 1:45:20
  Yeah. But it's not so much that's like
• 1:45:22
  there's also cool stuff that
• 1:45:23
  happens because the unique.
• 1:45:23
  Like situation of operating ROV subsea
• 1:45:27
  the ship is actually stationary for you
• 1:45:30
  know, hours sometimes 36 hours because
• 1:45:32
  the ROV is there and now you're offshore
• 1:45:34
  sitting in the middle plot basically
• 1:45:36
  without moving and when the weather gets
• 1:45:38
  really thick or what they called socked
• 1:45:41
  in all the lights from the ship is kind
• 1:45:43
  of contained within that bubble on the
• 1:45:45
  surface. Yeah. Over the course of the
• 1:45:47
  night since nothing's moving you get the
• 1:45:49
  bait fish you get all the bait you get
• 1:45:51
  there if you didn't come in and then
• 1:45:52
  becomes a feeding frenzy. So.
• 1:45:52
  You've got I don't know we've seen one
• 1:45:56
  night you could see millions uncountable
• 1:45:58
  amount of fish but then also sunfish and
• 1:46:01
  sharks and dolphins all just all nights
• 1:46:03
  warming around the vessel. It's pretty
• 1:46:06
  cool. I don't think you get that unless
• 1:46:08
  you're getting the ROV down below as well
• 1:46:09
  for that long. Right. Right. That's kind
• 1:46:11
  of a cool thing. That's amazing. That's
• 1:46:14
  pretty cool. Megan. Do you have a did you
• 1:46:15
  have a different story that's happened to
• 1:46:18
  you where that's really
• 1:46:18
  memorable. Well, I'll tell a couple.
• 1:46:21
  So one of our sites is the endeavor
• 1:46:26
  hydrothermal vents that Dirk was talking
• 1:46:28
  about a little bit and I remember kind of
• 1:46:33
  like one of my first cruises going there
• 1:46:34
  and you know I didn't really know that
• 1:46:37
  much about them but you know the ROV goes
• 1:46:39
  down and it's kind of like
• 1:46:42
  you're on a different planet.
• 1:46:42
  So there's there's all these hydrothermal
• 1:46:46
  vents that look like spires and there's
• 1:46:49
  like what looks like black smoke coming
• 1:46:51
  out of them and and it's kind of shocking
• 1:46:56
  and and the fact that the ROV can like
• 1:46:59
  navigate around these vent structures
• 1:47:02
  because you might turn a corner and then
• 1:47:05
  because you don't have the same sort of
• 1:47:08
  spatial awareness that you do as a human
• 1:47:10
  with like peripheral vision and
• 1:47:11
  necessarily like you'll you'll turn the
• 1:47:14
  corner and then in the frame there'll be
• 1:47:16
  this huge hydrothermal vent tower like
• 1:47:19
  whoa. Yeah. It's pretty magical and and
• 1:47:26
  kind of shocking because you're you're
• 1:47:28
  you're floating on the ship above it and
• 1:47:30
  you're like whoa. It's like this this sci
• 1:47:33
  fi universe just straight down below
• 1:47:36
  where we're sitting right now. It's
• 1:47:38
  pretty epic. And then I'll tell one other thing. So yeah, I think that's a great thing.
• 1:47:41
  Yeah, for sure.
• 1:47:44
  We were on an expedition this past June
• 1:47:47
  and we'd finished all of our dives and we
• 1:47:52
  had a like a couple of hours before we
• 1:47:55
  had to leave to be back to the dock in
• 1:47:57
  time and it was lunch time and everybody
• 1:48:02
  was kind of sitting outside eating lunch
• 1:48:04
  and these humpback whales just were
• 1:48:08
  playing in front of the ship for
• 1:48:10
  and we didn't we didn't have to leave yet
• 1:48:13
  and nobody was on shift anymore. So we
• 1:48:16
  just it was this this epic, you know,
• 1:48:20
  whale watching situation and we could
• 1:48:23
  just sit there for an hour and the whole
• 1:48:27
  crew was outside. I would imagine running
• 1:48:30
  from one side of the vessel to the other
• 1:48:32
  as as we were watching these humpbacks
• 1:48:34
  playing and slapping.
• 1:48:35
  I want to say it got up to five. Wow. Do
• 1:48:40
  you remember that right, Dirk? Yeah,
• 1:48:43
  there's a few groups that travel through
• 1:48:44
  during the dive and at the end they were
• 1:48:45
  kind of the last stragglers are kind of
• 1:48:48
  just playing. We eventually think they
• 1:48:50
  were playing in the bow thruster as a
• 1:48:52
  ship holding station. They were just like
• 1:48:54
  getting that blow of the thruster, right?
• 1:48:57
  It was a it was a pretty magical way to
• 1:48:59
  to finish an expedition.
• 1:49:02
  Yeah, I mean, it's it's really great when
• 1:49:06
  you can you almost have your you know,
• 1:49:08
  your your environmental documentary right
• 1:49:10
  in front of you. Yeah, you know, where
• 1:49:11
  you just see the beautiful scenery, you
• 1:49:13
  know, the ocean in the background, the
• 1:49:15
  horizon and then you've got you've got
• 1:49:17
  whales just playing in front of your ship
• 1:49:19
  and you know, and you're then you're off
• 1:49:20
  and that's that's probably the best way
• 1:49:21
  to to kind of end your shift, I think.
• 1:49:23
  Yeah, and there's definitely you know,
• 1:49:26
  you talk about some days where you're
• 1:49:28
  like, there's not enough money in the
• 1:49:29
  world that you can pay me to keep doing
• 1:49:32
  this, especially if you're if you're
• 1:49:34
  seasick and it's rough and it's just oh,
• 1:49:37
  and then on the flip side, there's days
• 1:49:39
  where you're like, I can't believe I'm
• 1:49:40
  getting paid to do this right now. This
• 1:49:42
  is absolutely incredible.
• 1:49:43
  Yeah, no, it's it's it's it's amazing. I
• 1:49:48
  want to just talk a little bit about the
• 1:49:50
  challenges that we have, like out at sea,
• 1:49:53
  you know, obviously, we've talked about
• 1:49:55
  nothing works perfectly. It's it's it can
• 1:49:58
  be very hectic. Josh, for the ROV, what
• 1:50:02
  are the biggest challenges? Obviously,
• 1:50:04
  visibility is one we've we've kind of
• 1:50:06
  touched upon in a bit of the currents. Is
• 1:50:07
  there anything else that becomes a
• 1:50:08
  challenge? Or is your
• 1:50:10
  you just got an easy job?
• 1:50:10
  It's not easy. It's a yeah, I actually
• 1:50:14
  don't really do anything. It's just
• 1:50:15
  robot. It's very true. It's very true.
• 1:50:19
  Really easy. I could do that one. Yeah,
• 1:50:24
  Josh, Josh mostly just calls it in. Yeah,
• 1:50:26
  I don't actually come out of my my bunk.
• 1:50:29
  Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, so it's, it's a
• 1:50:34
  the most dynamic environment to work in.
• 1:50:36
  It that we know of currently in the I
• 1:50:41
  would say in the universe. And the reason
• 1:50:43
  I say that is because yes, we can get to
• 1:50:45
  space. But when you're in space, you have
• 1:50:47
  a one atmosphere. It's a vacuum, but
• 1:50:50
  that's it. You know, it's it's it doesn't
• 1:50:54
  change where you go in space, say, but if
• 1:50:57
  you go in the deep ocean, every meter
• 1:51:00
  deeper that you put your RV into the
• 1:51:02
  ocean there, the water pressure increases
• 1:51:04
  because of the weight of weight of the water. Right.
• 1:51:04
  And that's because of the weight of
• 1:51:05
  weight of the water above you, of course.
• 1:51:07
  So so the biggest challenge in or obese
• 1:51:11
  general is is especially when you're
• 1:51:13
  going really deep to 3000 meters is
• 1:51:16
  making sure that all your systems are are
• 1:51:21
  built properly and maintained properly so
• 1:51:25
  that water doesn't creep into anywhere
• 1:51:27
  you don't want it to.
• 1:51:28
  And so it's a very highly advanced piece
• 1:51:30
  of robotics that you're throwing into
• 1:51:31
  salt water under pressure that's changing
• 1:51:35
  all the time. So that's the you know,
• 1:51:38
  that's that's problem number one. Now
• 1:51:40
  that's more or less been solved over the
• 1:51:42
  years of our engineering.
• 1:51:43
  But then the dynamics of the job, the
• 1:51:47
  other dynamics is obviously the weather
• 1:51:48
  solution, the ship has problems in the
• 1:51:52
  weather holding station or can make
• 1:51:55
  launch and recovery dangerous if you if
• 1:51:57
  you do it in two high seas.
• 1:51:59
  So that's another issue that we face
• 1:52:02
  commonly. And then visibility, like we
• 1:52:06
  mentioned, that can be one.
• 1:52:07
  Sometimes we have great visibility,
• 1:52:10
  especially at the deeper sites. So that's
• 1:52:11
  not an issue. Currents, though, ocean
• 1:52:14
  currents can be a very large issue. We
• 1:52:16
  have a cruise in March coming up where
• 1:52:18
  we'll be doing some work where the
• 1:52:20
  currents can be really, really just
• 1:52:23
  terrible to work in.
• 1:52:25
  For example, we've launched an ROV once
• 1:52:27
  and of course we know what the surface
• 1:52:30
  current is doing from from just looking
• 1:52:33
  over the side of the ship. So we put the
• 1:52:35
  ROV in and we we face the ship. So the
• 1:52:37
  ROV will get swept by the current away
• 1:52:39
  from the ship to a safe spot.
• 1:52:41
  But once we dove 10 meters down, the
• 1:52:43
  current was going in complete opposite
• 1:52:45
  direction. And we could not tell that we
• 1:52:47
  didn't have an instrumentation to know.
• 1:52:49
  So the ROV went 10 meters down and we're
• 1:52:51
  diving and all of a sudden it starts
• 1:52:52
  getting pushed directly underneath the
• 1:52:54
  ship, which is very dangerous.
• 1:52:57
  Yeah. So, you know, that that can be one
• 1:52:59
  for sure. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a
• 1:53:02
  change. I mean, there's a lot of I'm
• 1:53:04
  sorry, go ahead, make gifts.
• 1:53:04
  Oh, I was gonna say, Josh, you can tell
• 1:53:07
  Andrew about your very highly
• 1:53:09
  sophisticated surface
• 1:53:10
  current check before launching.
• 1:53:14
  I'm so glad that you brought that up
• 1:53:16
  again. Well, you're also my I have a very
• 1:53:20
  advanced instrument. I go over to the
• 1:53:23
  side of the ship and I spit into the
• 1:53:26
  water and I watch sit and see how fast
• 1:53:29
  and what direction it
• 1:53:30
  goes. Very scientific.
• 1:53:31
  And yeah, and it usually works pretty
• 1:53:34
  well. Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine
• 1:53:38
  now. I want to kind of bring up there's
• 1:53:41
  there's a story that I've heard about an
• 1:53:44
  ROV deciding to go on
• 1:53:45
  its own trip at one point.
• 1:53:47
  And you know, in a way, it's a bit of a
• 1:53:50
  one of your scientific studies, I guess,
• 1:53:52
  of finding out currents and where they
• 1:53:53
  go. Can you talk a little bit about Josh,
• 1:53:56
  where an ROV ended up
• 1:53:57
  off the coast of Oregon?
• 1:54:00
  Sure, absolutely. No problem. This is my
• 1:54:04
  story of what I like to say is the
• 1:54:06
  longest ROV dive ever because it was in
• 1:54:08
  the water for two weeks straight. We were
• 1:54:12
  installing an outfall pipe, which is a
• 1:54:15
  pipe that comes from a sewage tank.
• 1:54:16
  Comes from a sewage treatment plant in
• 1:54:18
  Victoria and then disperses treated
• 1:54:21
  sewage in deep into the ocean properly.
• 1:54:25
  We were installing a new one a few years
• 1:54:27
  ago. And as pretty much every time we've
• 1:54:33
  had a major issue, there
• 1:54:36
  was multiple factors involved.
• 1:54:37
  But basically, our ROV became the tether
• 1:54:41
  became trapped due to a few different
• 1:54:46
  things. The weather came up and we became
• 1:54:48
  trapped subsea. So we had to cut the
• 1:54:53
  tether manually on the ship and leave the
• 1:54:55
  ROV stuck subsea overnight because we
• 1:54:58
  couldn't stay where
• 1:54:59
  we were with the ship.
• 1:54:59
  But when we came back in the morning, the
• 1:55:04
  ROV was no longer stuck and they're
• 1:55:07
  designed to float when they are not being
• 1:55:09
  powered so that you can find them. And we
• 1:55:15
  came back in the morning. It was nowhere
• 1:55:17
  to be found. I spent about four days in a
• 1:55:19
  small airplane searching the ocean around
• 1:55:22
  that area. We didn't see it.
• 1:55:23
  Is that the term?
• 1:55:27
  Absolutely. And I guess we weren't really
• 1:55:29
  looking in the right spot because
• 1:55:30
  evidently it had floated all the way down
• 1:55:34
  to the coast of Oregon from Victoria. I
• 1:55:36
  don't know how many kilometers that is.
• 1:55:39
  And we actually had we literally had lost
• 1:55:44
  ROV flyers and posters out in Victoria.
• 1:55:46
  Like if found, please return to or please
• 1:55:50
  call. And we put our notices to the coast
• 1:55:52
  guard and somebody eventually found it in
• 1:55:55
  the US waters. And we got it back. Then
• 1:55:59
  we got it working within four hours by
• 1:56:01
  being returned to us, to our facility. So
• 1:56:04
  that was pretty cool.
• 1:56:06
  I think before we recorded, I think Megan
• 1:56:08
  says by a good scientific
• 1:56:09
  drifting study, I think is what we.
• 1:56:10
  That's a very expensive way to understand
• 1:56:14
  current versus Josh's spit test.
• 1:56:21
  He's got the extremes covered. Yeah, it
• 1:56:25
  was pretty rough at the time, but I could
• 1:56:28
  have been stressful. Yeah, it's also not
• 1:56:31
  the first ROV that I've lost. Just the
• 1:56:34
  longest amount of time.
• 1:56:37
  Gotcha. Gotcha.
• 1:56:39
  Dirk, one of the things I wanted to talk
• 1:56:41
  about too, just as we kind of wrap this
• 1:56:43
  up, is you're working in very deep
• 1:56:47
  waters. The pressure is almost like to
• 1:56:50
  the extreme. What type of materials do a
• 1:56:53
  lot of the instrumentation have to have
• 1:56:55
  to be able to survive in deep?
• 1:56:57
  We talked a little bit about if you put
• 1:56:59
  something in a hydrothermal vent, the
• 1:57:01
  deposits can grow on top of it. But if
• 1:57:04
  we're looking at just a platform and
• 1:57:06
  tubes that instruments go into or water
• 1:57:09
  that flows through if it has to flow
• 1:57:10
  through, what kind of materials are we
• 1:57:12
  looking at here that you're working with?
• 1:57:15
  So obviously the easiest material that's
• 1:57:18
  the least reactive is plastic. So if you
• 1:57:20
  can get away with plastic in whatever
• 1:57:21
  pressure, that's the ideal. But like Josh
• 1:57:23
  said, pressure, our deepest site is
• 1:57:25
  almost three kilometers and the pressure
• 1:57:28
  down there is 4,500
• 1:57:30
  pounds per square inch.
• 1:57:32
  So you can't get away with plastic if
• 1:57:34
  there's any kind of air void, right?
• 1:57:37
  Yeah. So mostly what we do use is
• 1:57:40
  titanium because we don't want to have to
• 1:57:44
  recover an instrument or anything like
• 1:57:45
  this because we're worried about the
• 1:57:48
  corrosion on the housing. So titanium is
• 1:57:50
  normally our go-to for
• 1:57:51
  absolutely everything.
• 1:57:52
  So we have used aluminum, it's much
• 1:57:58
  cheaper. It's easier to machine, but in
• 1:58:00
  general, titanium. We also use shallow
• 1:58:02
  water. We do use aluminum shallow water.
• 1:58:05
  We can get away with plastic. But it's
• 1:58:07
  not just pressure. We're
• 1:58:08
  also worried about corrosion.
• 1:58:10
  And that could be affected by not just
• 1:58:12
  salt water. Like in straight Georgia, we
• 1:58:14
  get crazy corrosion on like stainless
• 1:58:16
  steel or anything like this. And we don't
• 1:58:18
  like it's just some other chemical or
• 1:58:20
  interaction in the water. Right. Some of
• 1:58:22
  the more dormant. I don't know, dormant,
• 1:58:24
  but like, I guess less interesting sites
• 1:58:27
  like the abyssal plains, the things just
• 1:58:29
  seem to last. And at the hydrothermal
• 1:58:30
  events, there's some other weird reaction
• 1:58:32
  that interferes with the materials and
• 1:58:34
  village to protect itself. So but
• 1:58:36
  titanium generally is good
• 1:58:37
  for any of those environments.
• 1:58:38
  Gotcha. Wonderful. And I know it's
• 1:58:41
  sometimes for a lot of us, it's difficult
• 1:58:42
  to picture what's what's under there. And
• 1:58:45
  you guys have done a really great job of
• 1:58:47
  putting together a story map website
• 1:58:50
  where people can click on to. We'll put
• 1:58:52
  the links in the show notes. Can we talk
• 1:58:55
  about, you know, why this is such an
• 1:58:57
  important aspect, Megan, to have these
• 1:59:00
  types of story maps up to kind of give
• 1:59:02
  people a perspective of what it's like,
• 1:59:05
  what the instrumentation looks like, what
• 1:59:06
  it's like to operate in ROV. I'm looking right now.
• 1:59:07
  ROV arm that's that's trying to grab a
• 1:59:12
  rope. You know, it's what how important
• 1:59:14
  is that for for O and C to get that
• 1:59:17
  information out there and for campact to
• 1:59:18
  do that to share first shout out to the O
• 1:59:22
  and C comms team who actually puts a lot
• 1:59:24
  of work into the story maps.
• 1:59:26
  I don't know that us as engineers and
• 1:59:31
  technologists are the best storytellers
• 1:59:33
  all the time, but working closely with
• 1:59:36
  our comms team to put these stories
• 1:59:38
  together in compelling ways so that
• 1:59:41
  anyone can understand what we're talking
• 1:59:45
  about and and to really tell the story
• 1:59:47
  for any ages, you know, kindergarten to,
• 1:59:50
  you know, seniors with
• 1:59:53
  any kind of background.
• 1:59:54
  And it's really, you know, if you think
• 1:59:57
  about the planet Earth, we're actually
• 2:00:00
  mostly ocean and, you know, other than
• 2:00:05
  the surface of the ocean, most people
• 2:00:06
  don't get a chance to see what's
• 2:00:08
  underneath and to understand how
• 2:00:10
  important the ocean is to the health of
• 2:00:13
  the planet and to our industries, to our,
• 2:00:16
  you know, food supplies,
• 2:00:18
  you know, the list goes on.
• 2:00:20
  And so kind of opening up that window so
• 2:00:22
  that there's better understanding of what
• 2:00:24
  goes on in the deep ocean, the
• 2:00:26
  interactions in the deep ocean, you know,
• 2:00:28
  just for overall awareness and and really
• 2:00:31
  sort of, you know, opening the door and,
• 2:00:35
  you know, sort of opening people's minds
• 2:00:37
  and kind of maybe inspiring a few kids to
• 2:00:40
  to join us on these on these offshore
• 2:00:44
  expeditions in future.
• 2:00:45
  So, yeah, so it's it's super important to
• 2:00:49
  get out there and to tell the stories and
• 2:00:51
  to and to make it accessible
• 2:00:53
  for as many people as possible.
• 2:00:56
  Absolutely. If I have a question, you
• 2:00:57
  guys are preparing to go out in offshore
• 2:01:00
  soon in the next month, I believe. Is
• 2:01:03
  this going to be a regular maintenance
• 2:01:04
  plan or is this going
• 2:01:06
  to be anything different?
• 2:01:07
  We'll go with this one. Yeah, so this is
• 2:01:12
  we generally have to I guess long story
• 2:01:16
  short, yes, it's regular maintenance. We
• 2:01:17
  have normally two expeditions a year.
• 2:01:19
  And normally we focus the early season
• 2:01:21
  one on inshore, near shore activities and
• 2:01:24
  then the summer one offshore. And that's
• 2:01:26
  kind of a combination between the inshore
• 2:01:28
  trying to get ahead of the like the fresh
• 2:01:30
  set, which when we get all the more nutrients in the water and we get
• 2:01:31
  all the more nutrients in the water and
• 2:01:33
  we get all the blooms and visibility kind
• 2:01:36
  of goes away. So we try and get our our
• 2:01:39
  instruments freshly prepped for that to
• 2:01:41
  capture all that data.
• 2:01:42
  Gotcha.
• 2:01:42
  And then offshore, we want to maximize
• 2:01:44
  weather. So we try to go in the best
• 2:01:46
  weather months. So
• 2:01:47
  that's always going to summer.
• 2:01:49
  Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. That
• 2:01:51
  makes sense. Well, I have to say the
• 2:01:53
  three of you. Thank you so much for
• 2:01:54
  coming on the show and
• 2:01:55
  talking about the work that you do.
• 2:01:57
  Obviously, it's invaluable to the
• 2:01:59
  operations of ONC and it was super fun to
• 2:02:02
  have all three of you on. And it's great
• 2:02:04
  to see, you know, the way you guys banter
• 2:02:06
  back and forth. And obviously, you've
• 2:02:08
  known each other for a long time, spent a
• 2:02:09
  lot of time at sea together.
• 2:02:10
  And I think it's a lot of fun to be able
• 2:02:12
  to have that on the on the episode too.
• 2:02:14
  So I really appreciate all three of you
• 2:02:15
  coming on and for the work you do. And
• 2:02:17
  good luck with the next with the next
• 2:02:19
  trip. And I'd love to have you back on
• 2:02:21
  the show at some point.
• 2:02:23
  Awesome. Thanks, Andrew.
• 2:02:25
  Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.
• 2:02:26
  Thank you, Megan, Josh and Dirk for
• 2:02:29
  joining me on today's episode of the How
• 2:02:30
  to Protect the Ocean podcast and this
• 2:02:32
  segment, Surfacing Secrets Explore the
• 2:02:33
  Ocean and Know the Planet. This is such
• 2:02:36
  an important thing for me to partner with
• 2:02:38
  Ocean Networks Canada as well as their
• 2:02:40
  partners to just kind of give the behind
• 2:02:42
  the scenes of what goes on.
• 2:02:43
  We hear a lot about the deep sea. We hear
• 2:02:45
  a lot about the work that goes on, but we
• 2:02:47
  don't get the intricacies of it. We don't
• 2:02:49
  understand how like who are the players,
• 2:02:51
  who are the scientists, the data
• 2:02:52
  engineers, the IT people. We
• 2:02:54
  don't get to hear from them.
• 2:02:54
  And they are amazing people, as you can
• 2:02:56
  tell the chemistry between all three
• 2:02:59
  other people that we had on today, Megan,
• 2:03:01
  Josh and Dirk were fun. You know, you can
• 2:03:03
  tell that they have a lot of fun out
• 2:03:04
  there on at sea and in the field because
• 2:03:06
  it's hard. It's not easy. It's long days,
• 2:03:08
  long nights at times.
• 2:03:09
  It's very intense to work out at sea.
• 2:03:12
  You're never going to have like a perfect
• 2:03:14
  day to work out at sea when you're
• 2:03:15
  looking at, you know, wave actions and
• 2:03:17
  weather and so forth. So it's really good
• 2:03:19
  to be able to everybody get along.
• 2:03:20
  And you can just see that right now, the
• 2:03:22
  camaraderie between the three guests that
• 2:03:24
  we had on today. It was amazing. It was
• 2:03:26
  fun. And you get to see how much fun they
• 2:03:28
  have at sea as well as here on the
• 2:03:30
  podcast. So it's great to see that you
• 2:03:32
  have any questions or comments. Feel free
• 2:03:34
  to go to the website.
• 2:03:35
  The ocean networks, Canada's website,
• 2:03:37
  I'll put it in the show notes in the
• 2:03:38
  description below, depending on how
• 2:03:40
  you're consuming this podcast. But I'd
• 2:03:42
  love to hear your questions for the
• 2:03:44
  podcast. If you want to let me know in
• 2:03:46
  the comments on YouTube, or if you're
• 2:03:48
  listening to this on your favorite
• 2:03:49
  podcast app, you can go to our website,
• 2:03:51
  speakupforblue.com forward slash contact.
• 2:03:53
  Let me know if you have any questions
• 2:03:55
  about ONC or if you have any comments
• 2:03:57
  about the episodes, if you enjoy them, if
• 2:03:59
  you don't like it, let me know. I want to
• 2:04:00
  hear your feedback. Let me hear it from
• 2:04:02
  you. And I want to thank you so much for
• 2:04:04
  joining me on today's episode of the how
• 2:04:06
  to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your
• 2:04:07
  host, Andrew Lewin from the true North
• 2:04:08
  strong and free. Have a great day. We'll
• 2:04:10
  talk to you next time.