The oil services industry has been transitioning its skillsets and resources to accelerate offshore wind development, one particularly compelling example being the emergence of specialized service vessels to streamline wind farm construction. In an interesting twist, a former offshore oil survey and support ship has been upscaled for nature exploration and education, enabling the crew to see farther and deeper than ever before.
“Not only can we go to places that have never been seen before, we go to a place that seems ordinary and we make discoveries,” Stackpole said. He described how he and his crew-mate were in a deep abyss that seemed unpopulated until they flashed the lights of the submarine, and suddenly the area was populated with bio-luminescent creatures flashing back at them.
“The array, also known as the gondola, features two multi-beam systems, the Kongsberg EM712 and EM304, capable of mapping to 3600 m and 6000 m deep respectively,” OceanX elaborates. Sharks take a turn on August 25 when the crew goes for another dive in the Azores to follow the prehistoric sixgill shark on its deep sea hunting trail in “Jurassic Shark,” before heading out to the Bahamas for a look at the long journey of the hammerhead shark in “Hammerhead Highway.”