Exploration of Wake Island's Deep Sea

New ocean exploration technology alert! During NA181, we're excited to premiere the newly added Quokka eDNA sampler in E/V Nautilus' wet lab. Developed by the Australian National Science Agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Quokka is a surface eDNA sampler that automates water filtration and sample preservation for environmental DNA (eDNA) at regular intervals during vessel transit. The Quokka is programmed in advance using sampling “missions,” and during each sampling event, seawater is automatically flushed through the system, filtered for one hour, and preserved. Once a mission ends, the preserved filters are stored at -80°C until the expedition concludes. These samples are collected opportunistically during transits, helping fill biodiversity data gaps across the vast, remote, and greatly undersampled regions where E/V Nautilus expeditions typically occur.

The Globalising Marine Biodiversity Observations partnership (GloMBO) is a partnership between CSIRO and the Minderoo Foundation to develop automated eDNA sampling that can operate beyond traditional research voyages. The Ocean Exploration Trust is proud to partner with this initiative by helping to collect samples and field-test sampling approaches in some of the most remote portions of the Pacific.

As with most aspects of ocean exploration, the first step in searching for maritime heritage sites is mapping. For the areas around Wake Atoll involved in the Battle of Wake, we've used the Norbit WBMS multibeam sonar. The Norbit is a 400-kilohertz (kHz) compact, lightweight multibeam sonar that is depth-rated to 4500 m for mapping subsea data from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) platform. By "mowing the lawn" back and forth with this sonar, the team can create very high-resolution terrain maps and potentially identify exploration features of interest for up-close ROV exploration that may not have been resolved on a lower-resolution map.