The Ocean Exploration Trust 2023 Field Season

This annual report marks the fifteenth year anniversary of Ocean Exploration Trust’s (OET) E/V Nautilus exploring poorly known parts of our global ocean in search of new discoveries. Since its first season in 2009, E/V Nautilus has conducted a total of 158 expeditions that explored our ocean throughout the Black Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific for a total of 1,970 days at sea (~5.5 years). These scientific expeditions included a total of 1,017 successful ROV dives, as well as mapped over 1,053,000 km2 of seafloor. The results of these exploratory expeditions have been summarized in over 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications covering a wide range of scientific disciplines, including marine geology, biology, archaeology, chemistry, technology development, and the social sciences.

Throughout its 15-year history, E/V Nautilus has been not only a platform for ocean exploration and discovery, but also an inclusive workspace that has provided pathways for more people, especially those early in their careers, to experience and enter ocean exploration professions. It has also catalyzed numerous technological innovations, multi-disciplinary collaborations, and inspired millions through OET’s extensive outreach initiatives. The 2023 field season was no exception, with E/V Nautilus undertaking 12 multi-disciplinary expeditions that explored some of the most remote and poorly surveyed areas in the Pacific, all of which included numerous activities to share expedition stories with diverse audiences across the globe.