Answers to Questions About Ocean Exploration Challenges

Ask An Explorer: A Webinar for Students from 4th-8th Grade

Recently, NOAA Ocean Exploration heard from many students who have questions about deep-ocean exploration. To help answer those questions, NOAA Ocean Exploration, with support from the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, hosted the above webinar (a recording of the past live event).

During the event, students heard from experts at NOAA Ocean Exploration, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Ocean Exploration Trust as they shared their stories about the greatest challenges they have faced while exploring the ocean and the technologies or strategies they are using to overcome them. Students had the opportunity to "ask an explorer" their own questions when they registered or during the event. Experts answered as many student questions as they could during the one hour event. The webinar finished with additional resources for students to learn more and an opportunity for students to share their innovative solutions and receive feedback from scientists and engineers.

This event is intended for students between 4th and 8th grade, but everyone is welcome to view the recorded webinar from the past live event posted above.


Webinar Agenda:

  • Introduction to the challenges of ocean exploration
  • Meet the explorers! Ocean explorers will share stories about the challenges they face, explain innovative solutions they’re working on to overcome those challenges, and answer participant questions related to the following topics:
    • Exploring DEEP waters - how do explorers overcome high pressure, cold temperatures, and no light?
    • Ocean DATA - how do explorers maximize the data they can collect, analyze large volumes of data, and share discoveries?
    • ACCESSIBILITY - what technologies are helping increase the accessibility of ocean exploration?
  • Ask an explorer — Live Q&A with all experts
  • Resources for learning more

Useful Information for Students:

Ocean Exploration Challenges FAQ

While we are unable to directly answer every question we receive, below we've compiled responses to frequently asked questions about the challenges associated with exploring the ocean in hopes of at least providing a starting point to finding answers. We'll continue to add questions and responses as we are able.

The more we learn about the ocean, the more we understand how important it is. Exploring is key to managing the ocean in ways that keep people safe, support the economy, and protect ocean life. You can read more about these topics in this overview of why we explore the ocean.

Modern technology allows us to explore more of the ocean than ever before, and there are always new advances to be made. Our Exploration Tools page highlights some of the technologies used by the ocean exploration community today, from remotely operated vehicles to satellites. You can also watch a video on modern exploration technologies and future innovations in this video on deep-sea technology. Even with new advances, every dive still has challenges for experts to overcome using their skills and knowledge. Learn more about how we approach those challenges from a pilot of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

Having a good map is important for any explorer, but it’s harder to draw one with miles of water between the mapmaker at the surface and the seafloor below. Modern ocean explorers use tools like multibeam sonar to produce detailed maps of the seafloor, reveal seafloor features like seamounts or deep-sea coral gardens, and look for interesting patterns in the water column. You can learn more in this article about seafloor mapping or the second video on this page about using sound to map the seafloor.

Pollution from human activities can enter the ocean through rivers, accidental spills, and many other sources. This pollution can cause problems for both ocean life and people, and we sometimes even encounter it on deep-sea dives. You can learn more here about ocean pollution and efforts to control it, like those conducted by the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

All kinds of things! During expeditions led by NOAA Ocean Exploration, we have encountered deep-sea fish, octopods that look like pancakes, giant sponges, and much more. You can find images and video of many of these discoveries on our multimedia page or our benthic deepwater animal identification guide.

We’re so glad you asked! Thanks to telepresence, you can tune in live and follow along with deep-ocean expeditions from the comfort of your home. Check out the Vessels page on the Deep Ocean Education Project website to connect to the live streams from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, or Research Vessel (R/V) Falkor (too) whenever one of their teams is exploring the deep sea. Teachers can also schedule a live interaction with explorers aboard E/V Nautilus for their classes. If you are interested in ocean exploration as a future career, make sure to look at our resources for students on the NOAA Ocean Exploration website. If you want to know what options there are for ocean exploration careers, you can browse profiles of current ocean explorers who we interviewed about how they got to where they are now.

Ocean explorers rely on all kinds of underwater robots and machines to complete their missions. Some of the main categories are remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and human-occupied vehicles (HOVs). These tools have different abilities and limitations, so it’s important for expedition planners to decide which machine is the best fit for a given job. You can learn more about underwater robots using these educational resources.

Different robots communicate with exploration vessels in different ways. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are typically tethered to a ship on the surface using a long cable that delivers power and communications. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are not tethered to the ship and are instead controlled by a pre-programmed computer within the vehicle. As communication and telepresence technology improves, explorers can sometimes even control underwater robots from land thousands of miles away.

There are all kinds of reasons to choose new places to explore: It mostly depends on what the explorers are hoping to find! At NOAA Ocean Exploration, experts study the information we already have about the ocean to understand where the gaps are. Once an important spot to study is identified, we work with regional partners like other federal agencies, researchers, resource managers, and local communities to decide on exploration goals and strategies. These focused efforts in one region are called "campaigns." During a campaign, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer completes many expeditions with individual mapping or exploration goals. You can read more about expedition planning in this article by Operations Chief Kasey Cantwell.

Depending on an expedition’s goals, the exploration team can study many different things. Explorers frequently take measurements of ocean depth, temperature, and conductivity to better understand the area they are investigating. They can also measure ocean currents, scan the shape of the seafloor with sonar, or collect specimens to study local biology and ecology. You can read about these processes and more on our Exploration Tools page. Because the needs of ocean exploration are so diverse, exploration teams need experts in all kinds of fields from engineering and biology to filmmaking and education. Lots of important work happens on dry land, too, like technology development and data analysis. More information about the many career paths involved in this sort of work is available in our Ocean Exploration Career Profiles.

With specialized experience and practice! Explorers who pilot remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) or human-occupied vehicles (HOVs) have years of training, and many of them (though not all) studied engineering in school. New recruits also learn valuable skills from experienced pilots over several expedition seasons before becoming full-fledged ROV pilots themselves. You can read more about ROV pilots and the skills they need on the Ocean Exploration Trust website . More information about working with underwater robots is available in the education section of the NOAA Ocean Exploration website.

Ocean exploration includes a huge number of fields of study, from robotics and engineering to biology, geology, and education. Because of that, there isn’t one key challenge that affects all ocean explorers in the same way. When studying the deep sea, however, some of the most important challenges exploration teams have to deal with are related to depth. These include pressure, darkness, and the cost of exploring such extreme environments. Those challenges and some solutions to them are explored in the “Ask An Explorer” webinar on this page.