Wide Eye Productions just wrapped up a shoot in the South Pacific on board an oceanographic research vessel. The shoot documented a study of the Samoan Passage, an underwater “choke point” in the Pacific Ocean. University of Washington Oceanographer Matthew Alford contributed this report about the voyage. You can read more of his Samoan Passage blog, here.
We are now underway toward the region. Our goals on this cruise are several: first, we must use the ship’s multibeam system to map out the seafloor to ensure there are no additional paths besides the main Samoan Passage where the water could escape into the North Pacific. This would impact the way we design the first part of our main experiment, which will take place next summer aboard R/V Revelle.
Next, we plan to test our new lowered ADCP system at a few locations. Unlike most such systems, which are self-powered and internally recording, our system has underwater battery packs and a real-time feed, so we can be sure that the system is working well as we sample. The system will also sample oxygen and Noble gases for research being conducted by Steve Emerson, Roberta Hamme and Kevin Tempest.
The system also hosts the first version of our newest outreach enterprise, “Will it crush?” – which features a video camera and light capable of going all the way to the sea floor at 6000 m depth. There, the pressure is literally crushing – over 600 times that at the surface. We aim to film various objects as they deform and become impacted and crushed on their downward descent.
Finally, we have two videographers on board – Tom Hadzor (Wide Eye productions) and David Cuoio (Giant Stride productions), who are obtaining a large amount of video on our cruise with the goal of making outreach videos. They are currently in touch with National Geographic about making a pilot or a short series documenting our Samoan escapades.
