In 2024, E/V Nautilus will embark on one of our widest-ranging seasons ever, spending eight months exploring the Central, Eastern, and Western Pacific, mapping unsurveyed seafloor, and bringing new views of never-before-seen seafloor to the world. Join us in characterizing deep-sea habitats through detailed ROV observation, as well as integrating emerging technologies to help accelerate the pace of learning about the ocean. The goals of these expeditions are based on community input from scientists and resource managers as well as from local communities and stakeholders in the regions where the expeditions will take place. 

Our nine 2024 expeditions in Hawaiʻi, American Samoa, US Pacific Remote Islands, Palau, and Canada will contribute to the oceans being better understood by supporting international scientific and U.S. governmental priorities, particularly understanding ocean changes, sharing that knowledge with others, and contributing new discoveries and data that will inform future conservation and resource management decisions. OET will also continue to advance our priorities of education, diversity, and inclusion by creating more opportunities and inclusive programs — both at sea and onshore — ensuring we include and amplify historically marginalized voices in the deep-sea exploration and STEAM communities. 

Through the open sharing of data collected during these expeditions, we will build upon decades of study, stewardship, and discoveries. Mapping and ROV operations in unexplored areas will directly contribute to the US National Strategy for Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization, the Ocean Networks Canada Strategic Plan, and multi-national development of a global high-resolution seafloor map by Seabed 2030, and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The integration of different technologies, including landers and autonomous underwater vehicles, into operations on E/V Nautilus continues to advance national and international priorities for increasing the efficiency and sophistication of multi-vehicle ocean exploration. The 2024 E/V Nautilus expeditions are sponsored by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Ocean Networks Canada.